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7| The IFP -H alton H ills | T hursday,A pril 5,2018 theifp.ca • Truck Accessories • Upholstery • Heavy Equipment Glass •Window Tinting 354 Guelph Street, Georgetown 905-873-1655 Wehandleall insurance work. We handle all insurance work. Furnace Air Conditioning Gaslines Boilers Water Heaters Radiant Heating 905-877-3100 proud local dealer of Canadian made products .caTo book this space call 905-873-0301 To book this space YOUR AD HERE! Driving through town recently, I noticed a young guy having car problems. He was pulled over with the hood up on the car - the universal sig- nal that the car is dead in the water. As he was peering un- der the hood, I thought looking under the hood without the benefit of a dealership computer was pretty much useless. May- be it's a guy thing, but be- ing stranded with a car that refuses to run can be a major embarrassment, es- pecially if it happens in an area where the most of your friends pass by. Face it, for a guy driving a car makes you cool. And when that same car refuses the run, it can bruise that male ego. I sympathized with him and was reminded of some of my own less than memorable automobile exploits from my teens that still cause me to want to crawl into a crack in the pavement. My rock-bottom expe- rience was the first time I ever visited an A&W drive-in, back in the days when waitresses came out of the restaurant, and served customers their orders on trays attached to the side window of the car. The A&W in question was located on Queen Street in Brampton. This was long before there was an A&W located in Georgetown. As a young male out on the town driving the fami- ly four-door sedan - accom- panied by a young lady - I was doing my damnedest to impress her and the world. After taking our or- der, the waitress returned with our food, complete with two large mugs of A&W root beer balancing on the tray. She hooked it on the driver's side win- dow of my dad's 1966 Ponti- ac Parisienne. I pulled the food into the car, and rolled up the window to keep out the cold, leaving the two mugs of root beer outside on the tray. At that time, Brampton A&W was THE place to watch and show off the hottest cars in town, as they rumbled through, for all to peruse with en- vy. As my date and I de- voured our Teen Burgers, I watched a great set of wheels back into the park- ing spot beside my dad's car. I can still see it - an impressive 1969 bright red SS396 Chevelle with mas- sive tires that rumbled and shook as it parked be- side us, meekly seated in the family sedan. The driver glared in my direc- tion. Drivers in fire- breathing muscle cars had that right - they were allowed to glare at anyone who made eye contact. Being somewhat sociable I decided to chat, so I rolled down the window and forgot all about those mugs of root beer. You know, there's nothing as sickening as the crash of two glass A&W mugs hit- ting the pavement beside a car. The driver of the SS396 Chevelle made it clear he was not happy about the shower of root beer that dripped off the side of his car. As they swept up the glass, I crept out of the A&W, trying to remain cool. I beat a hasty retreat back to Georgetown, far from the smirking glanc- es of the patrons at the A&W. I don't think I ever took Dad's car back to Bramp- ton, opting to wait until I owned my own. And I'm absolutely certain that was the only date with that girl - she saw to that. Yup, that embarrassed kid with his stalled car certainly brought back memories for me. But he should count his blessings - it could always be worse. After all, he didn't splash root beer on the su- per-cool car next to him. And the best part- he didn't have a girlfriend with him. - Ted Brown is a free- lance columnist for the IFP and can be reached at tedbit@hotmail.com. OPINION Bruising the male ego is a fact of life A simple mug of root beer can ruin a date, writes Ted Brown TED BROWN Column l GET CONNECTED Visit theifp.ca/events to submit your own community events for online publishing. THEN & NOW Sunderland Villa erected in 1879-1880 by William H. Storey around 1900. Storey was a local glove manufacturer and Acton's first reeve. Currently the site is a funeral home. Then Photo/Esquesing Historical Society Now Photo/Amy Douglas RE: Public comments on police 'street check' law Two things are relevant to the public discussion on street checks or "carding". First, do the new regula- tions permit the practice as the public understands it and, second, is carding a useful tool for law enforce- ment in the fight against crime? If the answer is "yes" to both it seems that it should be done. The concern that some groups are "unfairly target- ed" is a weak argument. The most dangerous demo- graphic cohort in Canada is young males (those under the age of 30) who are un- married and often unem- ployed. So, by definition, the police are "targeting" some group more than other- s. Unfortunately, within this cohort are subcatego- ries of individuals identified by race and ethnicity. Is this fair? No, proba- bly not. But consider that hundreds of people across the country accused of se- rious crimes are held in re- mand and deprived of their liberty for months and even years before their cases come to court. This even though the principle of innocent-until-proven- guilty is at the foundation of our judicial system. What are judges to do? They would be remiss in their duties not to detain accused individuals who are either a flight-risk or pose a threat to the public Law enforcement and the judicial system: it is what it is. The best way to avoid any of this is to be a law-abiding citizen. Grant Moore Checking in on police checks