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THE IIERAI J Jane Page iiAM f-r- LETTERS- 30 Years Ago After the first year of opera tioo the Georgetown Womens Hospital Auxiliary doubled its membership and raised president Mrs J said at a monthly meeting thirty years ago Elections resulted in Mrs J being assisted by first vice- president Mrs A Macintosh se cond vicepresident Mrs J Gunn and third vicepresident Mrs Bob Burns Mrs Thorn Ferguson re mained recording secretary while Mrs J Graham became corresponding secretary The next project for the group was a Gift Shop Gala a fall ex hibition and a painting sale Mrs Inglis pointed out the group was the first in the area to sponsor an art exhibit It was announced that local Brownie efforts resulted in new baby nightgowns being add ed to the hospitals nursery 20 Years Ago Twenty years ago 16yearold Janie Cowtan daughter of Mr and Mrs Bernard of Hut- was crowned Queen of the Brampton Flower Festival Ball at the Riviera Flower Queen Miss Cowtan a student at Streetsville Secondary School was presented with the Cotton Trophy by Jack Cotton who also presented her with a silver rose bowl She also won a scholarship cash and a trip to New York Four Georgetown girls Susan 19 Sandy Waits 17 and 18 also took part in the competition Elaine Turk- was chosen second princess while Susan was a finalist Faye Bovaird of Brampton was selected as first princess Mrs Verna Vivian Mrs and Eric judged the contest Prices were shared by the finalists 10 Years Ago Traditional Haiton Hills Canada Day celebrations were switched from a Tuesday to a Saturday ten years ago because so many people were planning to holiday on Monday anyway Early morning celebrations in Glen Williams were launched with a pancake breakfast in the ball park A pancake eating con test was also featured in the ball park Following the pancakes Halton History from our fills was a Canada Day Challenge Cup between two local baseball teams The Canada Day parade left Mullen Place at noon and wound up at town hall where MP John McDermid MPP Julian Reed Mayor Peter and coun cillors Miller and George conducted opening ceremonies Pet shows wheel barrow racs egg tossing doughnut eating and nail driving contests were also in cluded in the celebration schedule Miller became Marshall for the day and Erin councillor Jo Schneider became judge for the day The Georgetown Girls Pipe Band headed for Burnetts Field to join the opening ceremonies There were also childrens games races obstacle courses and even marathon races during the events 5 Years Ago To celebrate its 140th birthday the scenic Heritage Farm con tributed to the Canada Day holi day celebrations by inviting the public to the daylong festival free The festival included antique automobiles from the Historical Automobile Society of Canada and historical artifacts provided by the Historical Society Pottery and crafts created by local professionals were also on display Standardbred race horses were also scheduled for show ac companied by the training staff of Freedom Run Acres Dog training exercises were also to run as part of the days events courtesy of the Canadian Kennel Club Heritage Farm was originally granted to Ralph Daniels a soldier of Halton for duties to the Crown Shopping confusion Bens Banter By Ben Dummett Well the verdicts in or is it The Surpreme Court of Ontario struck down the Retail Business Holidays Act Friday as un constitutional but store owners still are unsure if they can open Sundays Its one more example of the province leaving us in the dark Despite the ruling the pro vinces Attorney General Ian Scott said the government would appeal the decision to the Ontario Court of Appeal And therefore the legislation is still in effect un til the appeal is heard Yet lawyer Mark Meneray said Monday the decision means the legislation governing Sunday shopping opening is invalid And only if the appeal court reversed the decision would the legislation again be valid The result is con fusion The province created another sort of confusion earlier when it gave municipalities authority to determine which if any stores could be opened on Sundays But the fact is if the Region of Peel allowed across the board Sunday shopping Halton would have to follow suit If it didnt there would be a lot of angry store owners in Halton As Halton Regional Chairman Peter says its not a municipal matter its a provin cial Issue Its time for the province to eliminate the confusion and start taking some leadership The first step would be to accept the Supreme Courts ruling at least until the appeal is heard Doing otherwise gives the impression the province Is just a sore loser Doesnt it have any faith in a decision made by the provinces second highest court Enforcing the law would be like Mr Scott saying You think you beat us Well take that you grocery store chains Reader naive to believe in politicians promises Editors note The following let ter to MP Garth Turner was filed with the Herald for publication Dear Garth Less than two years ago just after your election as MP you sent me a hand written note which said I am luckily in the position now of being able to oppose within the govern ment plans to gut the rural postal system and I will A few months later when you were elected Chairman of the House of Commons Standing Com mittee on Consumer and Corporate Affairs and Government Opera tions your assistant called me for an official comment from Rural Dignity to include in the press release announcing your appoint ment Of course I responded positively since this new role would put you in an ideal position to act on your pledge Im still naive enough to believe people even you politicians will stand by your word Thats why your committees report on postal service released in April was so depressing for people who are fighting to keep our rural post offices public By calling for the total privatization of Canada Post you have effectively thrown all rural service to the wolves As you know the anguish caused by Canada Posts rural privatiza tion program past and present fills volumes Rural route driver Ron from Vancouver Island knows well the desperate unfairness of privatization Like all of Canadas rural route drivers hes a private operator who works on a contract basis for Canada Post Ron wrote to your Standing Committee last fall citing this example Early in 1988 the husband of a local rural router passed away On both the day of his death and the day of his funeral that rural router was obligated to fulfill her contract by delivering the mail as though it was just another normal working day Thats just one example of how privatization treats rural Cana dians Garth It says nothing of the total absence of mall delivery stan dards to small communities the contempt with which Canada Post managers treat their frontline employees and the public the huge discrepancies in private contract agreements the selloff of public buildings There- are scores of abuses in your hearing notes but you chose to turn a blind eye to all of them Besides that you refused to leave Ottawa to hear firsthand the opinions of rural people and other Canadians concerned about our postal service The cost about was too great for the com mittee to travel across the coun try you said adding rather piously I cant justify that ex penditure In my opinion you could have easily saved the taxpayers much more money by simply skipping the whole exercise Those months of endless committee hearings the reams of EnglishFrench transla tions the mountains of paper all reduced to a report which sounds exactly like Canada Post wrote it in the first place The young couple in who lasted just six months with a shabby Canada Post contract told me how youd sold them short and urged me not to put my faith in the wrong place I said Cmon give Garth a chance Maybe someday without regurgitating all that Canada Post doublespeak youll write a col umn explaining in detail how you think a privatized service will stop the gutting and why it is preferable to the public post office system which has served rural Canadians well for so many decades Yours sincerely Liz Armstrong Rural Dignity Ontario Erin Ontario More letters on Page 9 Thanks from the Bulls Dear Editor To all the Georgetown and area people who supported the Har mony Bull Trust Fund we wish to thank you In many cases your names are unknown and we wanted very much for everyone to know just how much it meant to our family to have you care enough to make a contribution It is a fine tribute to Sheila and daughter Mandy to help the survivors of this ordeal Harm is recovering well from her broken bones and many inci sions The doctors are pleased but they also say it is going to be a long hard fight back to regain some semblance of what she was With the trust funds help we know she is being given every chance to recover to her potential On behalf of all the Bull family we again say thank you Your prayers and support is much appreciated and felt All the Bull Family A proud Canamerican Gee the Free Trade Agreement just gets better and better doesnt it Its scarcely a year old and already were being given the opportunity to swap Canada Day for the Fourth of July Makes a feller proud to be a Canamerican As you may have read this novel idea has been proposed by the good folks in the head office of General Motors order to trim costs at the GM plant in Windsor the com pany wants its employees to take American statutory holidays rather than Canadian ones Precisely how this would save money isnt quite clear But the Americans seem to think its an ex cellent idea Of course the Americans also seem to think George Bush is an excellent idea which may or may not say something about the relative excellence of their ideas Still its important to remain open- minded about these things Quite frankly Ive always had mixed feelings about statutory holidays This is because as a self- employed writer I dont get them When youre employed a statutory holiday is merely one more day when the liquor stores are closed This is why Ive always had a certain sympathy for Scrooges philosophy on statutory holidays which is that Bob Cratchit should stop snivelling and be grateful for his halfday off on Christmas I should hasten to add that this is not a doginthemanger attitude on my part Heavens no Perish the thought Its merely sour grapes But I digress We were dicussing General Motors generous offer to let us swap our puny little Cana dian holidays for those grand American celebrations like Kinder And Gentler Nation Day National Handgun Day and Na tional SemiAutomatic Weapons Week On the whole 1 dont think so Still this is not to say that Cana dians are totally closed to the idea of celebrating foreign holidays A day off is a day off A such perhaps I could propose a shortlist of foreign holidays which Canadians might find more interesting One National NonEfficiency Day This is a popular festival in Germany Switzerland and parts of Austria and was instituted in 1966 in order to prove that citizens of these countries can be just as chaotic as anyone else even the Italians Festivities begin at precisely 802 am on Aug after months of careful planning Two Boris Yeltsin Day This is a brandnew Russian holiday on which ethnic Russians will spend hours drinking vodka and trying to remember that last time they saw meat in a butchers shop In the evening will gather along the banks of the Volga to sing folksongs and watch the sun go down on Mikhail Gorbachev Three Comatose Day A popular celebration in rural Scotland com memorating the discovery of malt whiskey Four Tourist Appreciation Day A traditional Hawaiian festival on which Hawaiians drink toasts to all their lobsterpink friends in Be muda shorts the ones who sprawl on the beach saying things like fen it wasnt so green here be a lot like Phoenix and Aint them grass skirts jes the cutest things In the evening natives gather in small groups to have a good snicker at what Aloha REALLY means Five Maggie Thatcher Ap preciation Day This festival has been failing slightly in recent years to the point at which its now a fairly localized holiday celebrated only at 10 Downing St To be more specific Maggie celebrates it Denis keeps his head down and his mouth shut Six Salmon Rushdie Apprecia tion Day This holiday was con ceived by the Iranian Librarians Association although it is strongly influenced by a traditional American celebration See Na tional SemiAutomatic Weapons Week above And or course Seven International American Appreciation Day This holiday is particularly popular in countries like Grenada and Panama where grateful citizens set aside an entire day to mutter things like gringo and Recently the urge to celebrate this holiday has spread to a number of other locations most notably the General Motors plans in Windsor