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The Aclon ee Press Wednesday January WINTER S SNOWY BREATH has covered the fields with white but there still lots of evidence to indicate there a weedy pasture here with golden rod and brown grasses creating patterns Already the sun has begun to mount higher Bay Argylc the chap who syndicates this column has written for about the fourth time asking for a new picture of yours truly to head up the column For various reasons none of them worth the powder I haven got around to having my portrait taken But I don t blame him The old one does not do me justice There scarcely a hint of the bags under my eyes There little suggestion that I gray as an old billy goat The deep lines of suffering nearly years of domestic warfare just are not there However I have a good reason for not having a picture taken for a couple of weeks at least I have a black eye That is it was black Then blue Then purple It now a sort of mauve shading into yellow I haven had such a dandy since 1944 when some German guards gave me a goingover for being Imprudent That time it was both eyes In fact the first time 1 got a look in a mirror after the beating I could have been mistaken for a fairly scruffy rainbow There nothing quite so embarrassing as a black eye It arouses the worst in other the days are lengthening and the time can be far away when we once again will hear the raucous voice of the crow Then we know that Spring can be far behind Staff Photo When this palled on me I swore Id had a brawl with the paper boy when he said I owed him for two weeks and I said one He a big paper boy For the Indies I use a different technique 1 tell them that this lady took a violent crush on me at a party that I was holding her gently patting her back and trying to quench her unrequited passion when her vicious jealous husband hit me right in the eye right over her shoulder with my hands tied up They raise an eyebrow sometimes two but I can hear them muttering together and sneaking glances at me from the other end of the room To others I relate that I was arm wrestling with my daughter when she found I was winning she punched me in the left eye with her left fist Which she would I have lots of others Hit my eye on the rear view mirror when I collided with a snow mobile and everyone else suffered terrible lacerations Struck my eye on the end of the handle of snow shovel when I had my first coronary Bumped headon into the cat when wo were both crawling around under the bed look for her But I will never never resort to that oldie about running into a door I ve run into plenty of doors and other objects in my life But it a pretty cheap way of accounting for a black eye I swear my wife didn t do it She was so ill through the holidays she t have given a goldfish a black eye What version Drop a line people loud and clear What happened to you Smiley Wife beat you up again And so on Those inane remarks To people who ask that I reply tersely Yes They don know where to go from there But to those who seem genuinely concerned I try to find some more exotic reason themthlnkl ma devil of a fellow This one happened during the holidays To the first few who came sniffing around looking for scandal I tried this gambit Do realize that the cork from a champagne ttle can penetrate the plaster of a ceiling Next time you open one be sure the cork is pointing at someone eye That shook them a bit and they went away shaking their heads in Or something To the next few curious I remarked of that I d had a fight with a cop on New Year Eve that he was still in the hospital and that I had to face charges as soon he was released They didn really believe me after a scathing look at my pounds of pure suet but they t sure him right in the gall bladder 20 years ago Taken from the Issue of the Free Press of Thursday January 1951 A central Civil Defense committee has been set up in Acton following a meeting of council and various organizations In the town hall last Friday The first meeting of toe committee Itself was held in the Public Utilities office Monday It was moved by Clarence Rognvaldson and seconded by Bill Denny that Ted Tyler be chairman of the committee Jack McGeachle is secretary with the motion mode by Jack Greer and seconded by Alf Fryer On the committee of five are Mrs A Orr Miss Alice McCaUum Charles Wood Bill Denny and John A questionnaire will be filled out on the facilities of the town Organization into section chiefs and subsection chiefs was roughly planned Last surviving member of the family of the late H Storey Mrs Jessie Dryen passed away at Flint Michigan Her father was the founder of the Storey Glove factory and the first reeve of Acton For the first time in the annals of municipal affairs in Halton county a father swore In his son warden of Hal ton County William I Dick crown attorney for years administered the oath of office to his son Kenneth of Milton William Clayton is moving to Toronto and Gordon Oder has been named manager of the Bank of Montreal here The new lounge at the has been much in use since it has been finished There are 12 In the Basic English class from Yugoslavia and Poland years ago Taken from the issue of the Free Press of Thursday January 20 The members of the Epworth League held the first organized skating party In new skating rink on Monday evening About of the young folk took advantage of the opportunity The musical revue and operetta The Gypsy Maid given in the town hall last Wednesday evening under the direction of the Junior 1 0 provided an unusual musical treat operatic quartette presented numerous much appreciated numbers Miss Pearl 0 Nell who Is no stranger to Acton gave a series of delightful elocutionary numbers The dancing in The Gypsy Maid was regarded by experts as a feature of skill In this section however there was manifestly too studied an effort on the part of the dancers to display the intricacies of the laces and frills and furbelows of their underwear on altogether too generous a scale At least that opinion Is freely erpressed by many who attended In a few days the institution in Guelph known as the Speedwell hospital will revert back to a jail farm Some prisoners will be brought from ana about from county jails The crime wave is filling up the tails and the overflow will be sent to Guelph Mr Russell has repurchased from Mr Brown the grocery and dry goods business which changed hands last summer In Georgetown a deputation of unemployed waited on council asking for employment Acton Hydro Commission has been organized with George Hynds chairman and Miss Ethel Starkman secretarytreasurer 75 years ago Taken from the Issue of the Free Press of Thursday January 9 The mellow sound of wedding bells floated through village on New Year a Day when Miss Jenny and Mr Roy Guild of Rodney were united in wedlock by Rev Miss Mamie Pasmore was bridesmaid and Mr supported the groom The bride and her maid wore travelling dresses the bride of blue and the maid of brown The couple left for Rodney on the train that evening The mercury registered below this week Mr Robert H Watson former of Acton sends SI for his subscription and writes from Tampa Florida We have ripe strawberries There is not a month of the year that we do not mature some kind of vegetable We think It would be most tedious now to go back to Ontario to have but one crop a year This part of the country is just the place for poor people and thousands are coming in When we settled in Tampa four now It is The annual election of this municipality Is over The battle was fought In the best possible spirit The council for the present year will be composed as follows reeve George Havill councillors J Matthews William Brown Isaac Francis and A E The personnel of the school board are James T Harding Robert Wallace Storey Geo and Robert Holmes Off the cuff A published report that representatives to County Council from from and Burlington met in advance of the inaugural meeting to decide who they would support for Warden are distressing We thought most intelligent county councillors had the northsouth hatchet but now we have evidence a Southern Caucus may be m the making The county and county business will suffer if parochial views arc to be reflected at the county council table Is there now to be a Northern Caucus Here s probably the shortest but catchiest safety slogan of our times He looked she He is she isn Bouquets for new warden It must be a real source of sausfacUon for Acton reeve Frank Oakes to have achieved the highest political office open to municipal councillors the wardens chair Recognition by ones peers Is the sincerest form of flattery and in this case there was no doubt of the support he had in the form of votes Opponents were faced with a record of 33 years of public service in almost every committee you can name and a flair for politics a formidable combination Oakes has been mayor of Acton reeve deputy reeve councillor a member and trustee on the school board a hydro commissioner and very active in community His record speaks for itself He has established a reputation as an able financial administrator which has led to being named as head of the business end of budget sessions both at the local and county levels This record has been accompanied by a diplomatic manner which has always been open to hearing the other side of an argument However as many are aware his opinions when set t apt to be swayed when he has made up his mind on a subject It is some measure of the man that he declined nomination for the office last year because he felt another year seasoning was needed This year he announced he Intended to run for the office on the evening he was confirmed as reeve by acclamation So the warden s office has not come by chance or impulse to Oakes but rather after a long apprenticeship in all levels of municipal politics The honor of being warden is also a reflection on the community which elected him to office and sent such an able representative to the senior council tables of We extend our congratulations and wish Dr Oakes a successful year at county council tables This could possibly be one of the last or the final term the event of the advent of regional government Christmas lighting delight Now that the Christmas lighbng controversy has died down it is time as the new Chamber of Commerce president has said to meet the cost of past and future Christmas lighting programs One of the delights of the Christmas holiday season has always been the light display along town streets and on private homes It is an attraction that encourages shopping and certainly adds something to the holiday season The hydro commission has announced its intention to set up pmes for the best decorated homes in Acton next year so it would be reasonable to assume that streets in town should meet the same high standards as private homes will likely continue Work on repairing the strings of lights and sputniks the past season restored much of the original lustre to lighting but there are areas along the business section on Queen St and Yonge as well as entrances to town along Main SL which lack holiday lighting Some effort should be to provide holiday lighting there as well since merchants in those areas would be reluctant to contribute to any fund that made no provision for them We also would think the public would be willing to make some contribution to town holiday lighbng from taxes to ensure that Acton s streets looked as colorful and inviting as those of neighboring communities It has been the responsibility of the Chamber of Commerce to provide Christmas lighting in the past although expenses took up a major share of the annual budget It is time perhaps for industry and public to share in the load since all share in the visual delight the lights afford It is for this purpose that the Chamber of Commerce has established a fund to provide for holiday lighting and we think it is a worthwhile project tint certainly does something for the town during the holiday season Our only regret is that the lights could not be turned on for the entire winter but this would be a costly project far beyond means available What kind of reaction would you have if your children arrived home from church on a Sunday morning and announced in matter of fact tones that their mother and father sure don t do much that exciting My first response was indignant surprise But after a cooling off process I began to wonder if there wisn t something to the charge What had my distaff side and I done that would peel the paint off a bam lately Nothing absolutely nothing It is true we attended our share of the holiday parties and arrived home almost as late as any of our friends Its true I danced the Watusi to the strains of Scotland the Brave and thought it was the highland fling But what had we done to deserve this square image from our progeny That easy said number one son You drive a four door sedan that ready for the and looks like a composite image of all the family cars in town Why not sharpen up and get one of those Dusters or Magnums so I don feel like a rectangle driving down the street And your clothes They look like they were bought in the depression when all styles were dowdy Why don t you get with it bell bottoms some sharp colored shirt3 and back comb your hair Delighted wife who smiled while I was on the receiving end of the verbal dart had her too They turned on her What the matter with brightening up your image they asked Dust off the squares and look alive Some know italls have declared that your true image can be discerned In the remarks of your children As you can see we have to make some improvements or we are going to widen the generation gap into a cavity that would hold the Rocky Mountains with the Niagara Escarpment for top dressing I ve been brimming with ideas about how to improve the old Image so the kids can approve of their ma and pa It looks like we would have to throw out all our clothes and start over The bucket of bolts must be exchanged for a spanking new sports car with four on the floor sliding roof and a motor that throbs with power when we rev it alongside the house It is the distaff side that going to have a problem She won t know whether to hang onto her duds or take the mini midi route Maybe she can settle for a pantsuit that answer to the woman prayer while the fashion moguls strive to produce something that will take everyone fancy and use plenty of material to boot And then we 11 have to do something for excitement Maybe we could take a run down to Montreal and interview some of the FLQ But the weather is rather distressing In Quebec at the moment And someone told me they were wearing guns So I d Just as won postpone the trip until they confiscate all the popguns in the province How about a trip to Hawaii Blissful basking in the sun while the grass skirted damsels weave in and out shaking posteriors to the strains of steel guitars or whatever it is they make music with In the islands But have you ever figured what these things are to cost Thousands and a bit of change It puts a different complexion on the If It takes that kind of money to adopt a swinging image I think I d rather stay square and on the outs with the kids can still have some excitement Although it might not suit the offspring there a nothing like a good Montreal Toronto hockey game on TV with a refrigerator close by for fill at the commercials Or how about a run downtown to look in the store windows on a Saturday afternoon That not so exciting you say Maybe not but Its not so expensive cither and you gotta have money honey as they say at the Wednesday or you might as well stay at home the part THE ACTON FREE PRESS I Coin Don E4K A AN OLD PICTURE left in the CN station showed Holmes H Kennedy and a Mr Signer and was dated 1921 railroads were thriving then also the crop on the lawn apparently