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4 EDITORIAL with Hartley Coles Traffic gridlock Despite the downloading of Highway 25 to Halton Region, the Province has not reduced the number of trucks and other vehicles which flow through Acton to and from Highway 401. Especially in peak periods when people are driving back and forth to jobs. : The number of trucks which thunder into Acton off High- way 7 seems to increase weekly as the economy takes off. Pedestrian traffic lights installed at the bottom of the School Lane on Main St. N. have helped to slow down heavy traffic considerably, as well as being a boon to pedestrians, but gridlock has become a common occurrence in peak periods. Traffic coming into Acton on Highway 7 from the east and west and using former Highway 25 from the north and south all meets at the corner of Mill and Main Streets. The problems are compounded on the stretch on Main St. from Mill to Knox Ave. past the IGA plaza as traffic enters and leaves. Sometimes visibility is obstructed and makes it difficult for drivers to access Main St. from the plaza without a certain amount of risk taking. There is an exit from the plaza on Mill St. which siphons off some of the traffic but most people prefer to use the Main St. entrance and exit. There's not much can be done about the volumes of traffic and the gridlock pressures under the present system of arterial roads. They converge on Acton and there's few ways to circumvent the main roads without travelling on dusty country roads. One day the Province, which is planning improvements to Highway 7 from Georgetown to Silvercreek will have to consider a bypass around Acton. It's about the only way to solve traffic pressures, which continue to mount weekly. Meanwhile, if traffic could be induced to slow down more it would be less hazardous travelling in Acton's business sec- tions. Shoddy programming At the risk of being labelled a prude with'no sense of humour, I question the actions of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC-TV) which persists in programming their series "Comics" at seven o'clock each night. The show is sometimes lewd and vulgar. Often it is not even funny. Worst of all it comes on when a lot of children are watching televi- sion. Granted, there's a warning broadcast at the beginning of each show. It reminds viewers the language may be coarse and the show could offend some viewers. However, is that enough to stop children from watching anything which they deem might be funny? I don't think so. If the CBC wants to show something comical or funny on the tube at 7 p.m. then why don't they clean it up first. A few bleeps wouldn't hurt on some of those programs, might even help. Or even better, show their risqué shows when the kids are in bed. Sure, we know some of the U.S. networks, which beam into this area, have seamy adult shows programmed early in the evening but that's no excuse for our publicly owned broadcasting network to play, "monkey see, monkey do." Whatever happened to the common sense attitude which used to pervade the CBC and the acceptance of the vulner- ability of children? If we must have a comedy show early then make sure it is comical, not lewd and offensive. Comics like THE NEW TANNER THURSDAY, MAY 7, 1998 REMEMBER those wintry days when you were cooped up in the house like Jackie? She's looking melancholy at the Legion Terrace apartments overlooking snowy fields and a frozen lake. Now it's spring and we can shed those wintry blues. -- Submitted photo Grannies by the bunch! By MAGGIE PETRUSHEVSKY The New Tanner Tis the weekend for the annual invasion of kids and grands to cel- ebrate Mother's Day. Mine, I hope, will make appointments if they plan to visit. I love them all but 20, or perhaps 21 by then -- depending on Judith's delivery date -- plus 11 couples, is a bit more than | can handle at one time any more. Besides, Dad and I visit my own mother each Sunday and this makes a poor time to break the routine. Now Riley and Aleesha Raetsen-Scott have the opposite problem. They need to decide which grandmother(s) they will visit. They have eight of them scat- tered a bit too widely to gather at any one location. The Guelph youngsters are young enough that their parents do the picking at this point and their mother, Laura Raetsen, tells me it will be her mother and husband Andy Scott's mom they honour this weekend. But first they' Il have some time at home as a family. Aleesha, 1, and Riley, 3, are not among my grandchildren. How- ever their parents have been visit- ing me since infancy because their grandmothers have been my friends since public school days and their great grandmothers and great-great grandmothers were also familiar faces at my home. Given the number of grannies involved how do you keep them . all straight, I asked? Laura keeps. it simple. Grandma Judy Scott, Andy's mother, lives in Glenlea and baby- mother, Margaret O'Rourke, is also an Acton resident. The kids know her as Grandma Uptown. Judy's mother-in-law, Mabel Scott died last fall. She was Grandma in Georgetown. Staying with Andy's family, the kids also have Elizabeth O'Rourke, Andy's great grand- mother whom they call Grandma in Rockwood. Then moving to Laura's side, there is Grandma in Toronto, Marilyn Rognvaldson, who was originally an Acton girl. She di- vorced husband Joe Raetsen when Laura was still a pre-schooler. Joe © remarried and his second wife, Angie, still lives in Guelph and gets included with Riley and Aleesha's grannies. Marilyn's mother died several years ago but Joe's mother, Laura's Oma Corrie Raetsen, still 'lives in Guelph. The unusual grannies on Riley and Aleesha's family tree are People may complain about dandelions but ! hear they're good Laura's birth mother, Liz Vick of Seaforth, and her mother, Maureen Roland of Arthur. Laura always knew she was adopted at birth but she didn't even go looking for her birth family until just before Riley's birth. Their reunion was one of the happy ones so "Nana" Liz is defi- nitely part of Riley and Aleesha's family even though distance lim- its the contact to telephone calls" and occasional visits. Since Laura also keeps in touch with Maureen, that keeps the bond in place for her children as well. "The only one the kids don't see regularly is Granny in Rockwood," Laura says, "and she's really old." Elizabeth O'Rourke is 96 so Laura is quite right. Two rug rats, adorable or not, can get a bit hard to cope with. My dad is only 87 and even with their mothers and [ all run- ning interference, he has been known to be relieved when my grands head home. It isn't happening yet, but Marilyn and I are just waiting to hear how Laura copes with the first announcement from one of the kids that they're "running away to live with Grandma." Given the choices open to them, she's going to need a plan if she hopes to keep her response cool, casual and de- flating. Something like "Oh? Which Grandma? I need to know so I can give you the right map," might conceal the panic mothers feel when the threat is made. Meanwhile, to Riley and Aleesha's grannies, and my own Mother, and all my daughters and Red Skelton and Bill Cosby have shown that humour does not sits the kids re isali for winers gularly. She is a life- : 5 Sa ; 2 have to be vulgar or lewd. long Acton resident. Judy's" ee iets HeEpvon Publisher Ted Tyler Distributed to every home Editorial Hartley Coles in Acton and area as well as . 59 Willow Street North Acton, Ontario L7J 1Z8 (519) 853-0051 Fax: 853-0052 Tanner Advertising Sales Circulation Composing Frances Niblock Ellen Pieh! Mike O'Leary Angela Tyler Lynne Burns Maggie Petrushevsky Marie Shadbolt Christine O'Leary Karen Wetmore 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.