The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

The Free Press Wednesday March 17 Editorial Paggk SB mbiwi Beware of weak ice One of the peculiarities of human nature Is that it takes a tragedy like Saturday where a four year old drowned to point out the danger associated with walking on bodies of water when weather starts to warm up We ve had a long cold winter with early frosts and record snowfalls In many ways this hafl been a boon for those who enjoy outdoor activities But it has also created extremely dangerous ice conditions on lakes and rivers Small lakes like our own Fairy Lake in Acton protected from real heavy winds froze over before the first snowfall Snow followed with sufficient depth to act as insulation which prevented the usual buildup of Ice in spite of extremely cold temperatures SAP WILL SOON BE running and maples like this beauty which frame the farm of Calvin at the corner of Five Sideroad and the First Line This scene Is typical of farmland in Acton and district during the first few days of March with signs of Spring visible in the air and in the fresh smell ting over the fields snow covered but betraying the first subtle hints that all nature awaits the Lady warming influence Staff Photo smiley March is a time for madness In this country 1 have lain on the gross with a girl March studying for exams and I have waded through snow up to the belly button in the some month This is enough to make Canadians a bit more psychotic than other nations March is as unpredictable as a pregnant female as precocious as an eccentric old man Mad as a March hare is no flight of the imagination You don t have to be a hare to be mad in March All you have to do Is look at the body of your car at what the salt and sand have done to it and you get mad All you have to be Is a mother with soaking muddy small children tramping in and out and you get mad All you have to do is total your fuel bill and you know you are out of your mind to live in such a clime All it takes is a note ram a friend in the south who asks how high the snowbanks still are and says he expects to come home about the first of May All you need to do is think of next month and realize that the average Canadian gives up a third of his income in taxes ana you can go right around the bend Our nerves are stretched to the snapping point by the ngors of the last four months Even a little thing like forgetting to get your car license plates before the deadline or forgetting to pay your hydro bill In time for the discount can make the most stable of us crack add go roaring the nearest person with the nearest blunt Instrument I haven t quite blown a gasket yet but can feel the pressure building up My wife has been off her oats since Christmas Having two kids in University is like walking around with two large leeches clinging to you Haifa dozen people want me to speak to a similar number of completely dissimilar groups all over the geography My boss is bugging me for a detailed plan for a new workroom for my department and I des the interior of an outhouse I in charge of two public speaking contests and two essay contests both with looming deadlines Thecal did It again on the floor last night and is going to the glue factory if it happens once more The CNR has phoned five tunes to tell me I owe them which was their mistake in the first place The guy who shovels my drive with his plow has put his rates up to per cent id Pepper by hartley This has been one of those special kind of weeks when thoughts of seem pleasant besides some of the small annoyances that have crept up and demolished my aplomb never very considerable at any time To illustrate just before I was due to kick up my heels at the music centre Saturday night for the Lions spring dance two of my front teeth joined the dropout brigade It happened over the bathroom sink in a manner that took me by surprise I had them out cleaning them All of a sudden they divided in two The original trouble of course occurred a few ago when a dentist decided the tooth beside the hockey dropout was also beyond repair and he extracted it without benefit of needle When I came down from the ceiling he proudly brandished the of fending eye that had been causing me several sleepless nights In their place went two commonly referred to as store teeth at a time when people t so delicate but which I was assured were known now as a partial plate Periodically when things have been going along pretty smooth and life has become too palmy these two decide it is time to split and make my life miserable On one occasion It occurred just after I bad stepped off a 707 In old Blighty after some airplane beef It never occurred to these two facsimiles of my real molars that knew no dentists in merry old England The gap their absence creates has been compared by my loving wife to the Grand Canyon When I smile she says the yawning chasm is generation gap she has ever seen So naturally we didnt want to trot ail around the land of Shakespeare and Chaucer looking like Frankenstein Consequently my sister whom we visited referred me to her dentist an Australian who through a glut of down under dentists was practicing his profession In Sutton Surrey Although he was more Interested in the hockey Jacket I wore Golf on ice ha ha he did an excellent repair job courtesy of the National Health scheme I went almost two years before the two teeth again had Saturday however I was in my glad rags when the split occurred Glue em together I said and hope no one takes a poke at me jostles or shows an in my face I got out the household glue applied the sticky stuff and fitted them together as best I could and behold they held together It t too long before we stepped out arriving at the dance like the tail end of the doglast The teeth stayed together until at Consequently as the Ontario Safety League has pointed out many of Ontario lakes and rivers are unsafe for or even travel by foot During March as Spring Is ushered in increased hours of daylight and warmth of sun will Increase the flow of water and currents which will bring even greater hazards Each body of water has its own danger areas like the one at Fairy Lake where the tiny tot wandered perhaps out of curiosity to see the hole in the ice If you don know the ice and are not sure about its safety for goodness sake don t take a chance Your life could depend on it At the first sign of ice honeycombing or reducing forget about travelling on it and stay with land trails Sunday the day after the tiny tot drowned were out on Fairy Lake oblivious to the risk they were taking your children about the dangers of walking on ice at this time of the year One tragedy in a community Is more than enough and this is the second death by drowning In Fairy Lake during the past year We send our sympathy to the bereaved family of four year old Scott Post We mourn the loss of a young life who d not realize the dangers ice can hold and hope that other children and adults too will take heed from the very harsh lesson Mother Nature sometimes teaches us cant keep quiet Lord I have essays 75 tests and exam papers to mark I have stubbed the second littlest toe on my right foot and the nail Is dangling by a painful bit of gristle or something I missed two crucial shots and lost out on theblg prize In the last curling The lock on the bathroom door has been gone since Christmas and people keep getting locked In Instead of locked out So all in all if you hear a small POP one of these days t be the wax In your ears cracking It be little insignificant The meaning of Lent has taken on new dimensions in the last decade Now we are in the midst of the penitential season five of Canada major churches have combined with a fund- raising campaign to raise four million dollars to underwrite a program of development and emergency relief Participating in the campaign arc the Anglicans Lutherans Presbyterians Catholics and United Church people representing per cent of the nation population This co operation was Initiated by a joint working group of the Canadian Council of churches and the Canadian Catholic Conference The churches are demonstrating that they are united in support of their attack on world problems of illiteracy injustice static social conditions as well as all forms of human misery in spite of theological differences There is need here at home and it is time we all showed more concern Perhaps this prayer which Ken Caveney a columnist with the Canadian Register wrote puts Its finger on the serious problems facing today world It is called LORD I was at a meeting tonight Lord and I heard an old lady talk about her two smelly rooms for which she pays a month Its not her fault they smell Lord its the stinking toilet water that keeps leaking through her ceiling and on to her floors She spends a lot of her money and time on chemicals and hot water to scrub the slime from her living room She goes hungry to keep the stench down She afraid to tell the slum landlord about it because he d put her out in the street Shes frail Lord She cant walk too far she can seem to find other rooms for the same rent When I hear things like that Lord I boil over so I m sitting here writing this prayer I hope somebody that can do something will read it I hope you don t mind my praying in public Jesus but it the only way I know of bringing these crimes out into the light My prayers to you are also pleas to a society that calls itself Christian When I hear something like this Jesus I can t keep quiet While there is one old lady that has to suffer like this or an alcoholic who is refused treatment at a hospital while there Is one woman who has to turn to prostitution to feed her kids and people have to rot in filthy rooms for which they pay over half an income while kids are neglected and lives ruined by booze and brutality I ve just got to keep lying in public Until somebody starts really doing something to clean up this whole stinking mess I Can t Keep Quiet Lord A message from the past There I know there nothing more boring that other peoples troubles off my chest And you must feel better to know that someone in the world has as many troubles as you And of course there are some things on the black ink side of the ledger too There a the winter break as they now call what used to be the Easter holidays A whole week in which to do nothing but mark exam papers There the prospect in about six weeks of getting the leeches off my back and Into the unemployment lines And there the sheer pleasure of not getting up in the dark every workday The sun shines and occasionally There a glimmer of hope that that peculiarly Canadian monster winter having vented his orgy of rage is beginning to die of sheer emotional exhaustion Unless the old brute throws one more senile but devastating blow at us Go placidly amid the noise haste remember what peace there may be silence As far as possible without surrender be on good terms with all persons Speak your truth quietly and clearly and listen to others even the dull and ignorant they too have their story Avoid loud and aggressive persons they are vexations to the spirit If you compare yourself with others you may become vain bitter for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans Keep interested in your own career however humble it is a real possession In the changing fortunes of time Exercise caution in your business affairs for the world is full of trickery But let this not blind you to what virtue there is many persons strive for high ideals and everywhere life is full of heroism Be yourself Especially do not feign affection Neither be cynical about love for in the face of all aridity disenchantment it is perennial as the grass Take kindly the counsel of the years gracefully surrendering the things of youth Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune But do not distress yourself with imaginings Many fears are born of fatigue loneliness Beyond a wholesome discipline be gentle with yourself You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars you have a nght to be here And whether or not it is you no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should Therefore be at peace with God whatever you conceive Him to be and whatever your labors in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul With all its sham drudgery broken dreams it is still a beautiful world Be careful Strive to be happy Found In Old Saint Paul s Church Baltimore Dated 1692 At one point there while I had my mouth full of sweet and sour r pineapple chicken bails and chow with almonds therp was another rending split I choked and out popped my two teeth into my waiting hand I looked surreptitiously around to see if anyone had observed m predicament Either they were too polite sleepy or they really hadn noticed I shoved the parts into my pocket Since that Incident nothing has seemed to go right And I was beefing away to a fellow news hound He reminded me of the time another friend had one too many and his teeth had come loose at the same time as his stomach He was bending over a toilet bowl at the tune Without thinking he pulled the lever that empties the contents and watched his teeth follow the food he hold towards the town water pollution control plant it knowing that someone has suffered a worse fate than yourself that provides life happy moments The dentist office just phoned My teeth are back and I hope everything else returns to normal years ago Taken from the issue of the Free Press Thursday March leaders of young people activities at the M C A were praised by the Board of Directors at their meeting Monday These leaders include Ken Allen and Charlie mentors of the Club Sateen Janet and Thompson girls handicraft leaders Gordon Clow boys handicraft leader Fred Hill and Ron model aircraft club leaders and also the executive of the Triple Gym attendance this month has been cut by the prevalence of the flu Word was received from Ottawa that vate Keith Robertson THE ACTON FREE PRESS PHONE Business and Editorial Office has been wounded in Korea He is in hospital In Tokyo Mrs William Cochrane a charter member of Lakeside chapter of the I O D and now Municipal Regent in Kitchener Installed the officers for The new regent is Mrs J Creighton Pallants awning collapsed with the weight of snow Wednesday No One was walking by at the time The school bus slid Into the ditch Wed during the snow storm and pupils had to be brought the rest of the way by car Mr and Mrs James Reed marked their wedding anniversary Council has appointed Charles Kirkness to the library board replacing Clayton Halton Night school held its open house In Milton this week Some from Acton take classes there It took 12 loads of stone to fill one hole in an Acton street this week 50 years ago Taken from the issue of the Free Press of Thursday March 1921 Yesterday while crossing Corporation Pond on his way to school Arthur broke through the Ice about the middle of the Mrs J P Scarrow happened to notice and ran to help him Her cries for assistance brought Rudolph Spielvogel to the rescue and he was able to rescue the drowning lad who was hanging on to the edge of the Ice with his elbows The patronage at the Soldiers Community House has increased to such proportions that the management has round it desirable to secure the services of an expert chef Mr Bernard late of Young Toronto has been engaged and Mrs Coles has charge of the dining room About guests are being accommodated for meals at present The annual meeting of Acton Athletic Association was held in the club house The Dominion championship and Central Bowling tournament are both to be held in Acton this year Elected were Hon Pres G W Beardmore Esq President Beardmore 1st vice J Clarke 2nd vice McDonald sec trees J Wood Others on the executive committee are Robertson Mrs W J Gould Miss A Clarke Social committee Mrs J Gould Mrs 1 Miss Speight Miss Brown Miss E Clarke Mrs G Beard more The Ontario Motor League has enrolled a cons number of members in Acton It Is hoped this will result In a more liberal distribution of road signs Last Saturday Star Weekly contained an Interesting article by Howard Oram a former Acton boy describing how greatly Toronto has changed the years he lived there 75 years ago Taken from the issue of the Free Press Thursday March 1696 The contracts have been let for a new residence to be erected for Mr H Moore on the family homestead corner Church and Frederick St The residence will be of colonial style plain but substantial John Cameron has the contract for the carpenter work and Henry Hill who built the public school Reeve store and Mr Alex Secord s residence the stone work brick work and plastering Mr Arnold has purchased the dwelling on the corner and will move it to the rear of his glove factory comer Mill and Wilbur The Emperor of Russia has invited the Prince and Princess of Wales to visit St Petersburg In May for the Imperial coronation Canada Is ahead of any other country In the supply of horses for Great Britain Last year the number was 12900 In there is a pretty general feeling particularly among the temperance people that the time has come to mike still further reduction in the number of licensed hotels In the county Mr Donald Mann who Is now at Grand Valley was here a few days last week The noble St Bernard dog belonging to Mr Samuel Laird was poisoned last week Mr Laird valued him at