The Acton Free Pr Wed February Signs from outer space An item in the One Hundred Years ago column today is worth another look and a rethink It refers to the first female child born in township pioneer family came from England probably and she was born about 1825 She may well have been the first female child born in But where does the north south Indian Trail in lead to Where did those Indian arrow heads come from Outer space Everybody loves a mystery It s interesting to see another letter this week concerning the old bottle found in a house on Scene St The house had been built by the Caswell family in Recent hot issues such as Acton patients use of Guelph hospitals the introduction of a separate school to Acton proposed changing of duplicated street names in Acton and Georgetown increased taxes to pay for parking all are headline issues But letters tell of remem brances of the past evoked by the discovery of the bottle and its enigmatic message Everybody loves a mystery Not taken from Queen Halton s expert on heraldry Dorothy Stone had news for us this week The Prime Minister office has not taken a traditional duty from the Queen as we thought in last week s Free Press This change was approved in fact in when all the sovereign s powers and authority were vested in the Governor General She also explains we are wrong to compare the Queen with the Maple Leaf The maple leaf is the badge of loyalty of citizens A coat of arms is the symbol of the Queens authority With heraldry expert Miss Stone in our midst we are all made aware of the importance of being correct in these matters No need for groundhogs No groundhog with a brain in his groundhog head would put his groundhog nose above ground Monday in a foolish effort to see his shadow The creature have to depend on superstitition to realize winter is going to be here for many more weeks The temperature was about 15 degrees below Fahrenheit of course at early groundhog peeping time and the countryside was covered deep in a new snowfall Stay under gopher We can predict perfectly well without you this year Names that spell history and Main Apparently the settlers of Georgetown had different family names Edward Mary Charles and Henry while herein Acton we have Wilbur I redenck and Agnes All these names mean some tiling special to the history of each town The matter of changing street names in Acton and Georgetown to avoid mix ups is mentioned again in today s Free Press A quick scan through the phone book shows which names are duplicated in each town Queen Guelph John River Church Churchill Eliza beth Victoria and of course Mill Your weekly smile The underwater dive at Fairy Lake two weeks ago inspired an Acton cartoonist to take up his pen His amusing concept of the unusual swim appears here He promises to send in more of his cartoons soon Sorry wrong number With the new phone books came a printed notice explaining why each residence was being given only one book this time It goes on to say anyone wanting another telephone directory should phone Did you try if You get a recording that says in an understandably nervous male voice The number you have dialed is not in service Leaves from England This Christmas card was chosen to be sent Free Press from London England The sender Nora Smout that the leaves came from the garden of a friend of hers who lives just near the Acton Chiswick boundary The leaves were picked and mounted by her friend The card arrived well after Christmas but was especially come Of this and that The figure of rooms in the old Beardmore mansion appearing in last weeks Free Press is disputed by others who remember the home It was large all right but wouldnt have had rooms ONCE A SHOWPLACE this old house is slated for demolition It was built about 1880 and at one time was known as Rose Cottage It will likely be replaced by a store it Cottage descend ml of out nf first si tilers built ill im Mill SI Hit It Ir leks which is it hi for in shortly John mm I lla hi iml 1li Fort i pi ml 1 hind it intends liutlil store nil the pro I lemt Mill inl Hi llu iUjr building It must b I tin ri llll Ill W IV IRClllI e with tin id trim wind is so llu In llu in liltli w i in summ 111 its ins mil pi idi I iIiK il his n Mil Hum irsliLs In i I there until 9B Others who line hen up r in addition it iiiil side sinn hive been It is mil il lulu Us ami ruiscv I fir tin lllston i book published in IJ1J bid Ibis to s of tin house formcrlv i Hi si I iwn in idi itnsi mil its surroundings In spot which ittnctcd visitor town lift IIr grounds and stopped on to Mill Street The w is ilw kept Hid illrctivelv painled and w is for out of show places prctt homes The re lot on Church Street whs secured Mrs on son Mr John im iron now of Hi intended to build home ixlv lis Sll liikint ihu iu llun Mrs Hum till till of 111 Whin lit ml li use in IJII it red 1 Mi si in low Hut il hid i hi ilnnelc r I IS lin down iflir llu mm Iks mo clip ird p mini mil insnl SI Mrs null Hi 111 IllllSI s is l SI ifford of s i settlers who fir ended hen built the mm occupied In Mrs lobn Ions mil Mrs imp- II lur livid thin fir but win those who wen In tin hi m of tin wislirn us sold to Port igi 1 fur but hi phi changed md lie When Mrs imiron hi Mrs ft Wood to reside in Gut Mr I iblmns bought property Ik resided in Hose of until hi i firm in hi isseil iw Mrs Gibbons ind lur diufhlers now reside Sugar and Spice by bill Holy I must he getting on Just walked in the door picked up the mail there was an invitation to i retirement party for Pete publisher of the Port Perry weekly newspaper Say it isn I so Pete Per I Pi a friend of more than a quarter of a century but it seems only yesterday that he and I were the life of the party waltzing the girts off their feet watching the dawn conic up as we sat in the bow of one of the old passenger sailing up the St I iwrence while everybody else including the very young had gone lo bed This retirement gig is a trend that deeply alarms me All my old buddies are putting themselves out pasture They don I seem to spare a thought for me I have to teach until I am seven to a pension About a year ago three old and close weekly newspaper friends phoned me from a Toronto of Gene of Alex indn i llvidsten It was all about midnight and they wcren even flying yet I sensed something wrong I thought they needed Smiley there to get some yeast Into the dough They sounded tired Is semi retired a newspaper baron of the Ottawa Volley Gene must be either dead or In tough shape as he at the summer national weeklies convention which he never misses And new Pete chaps I just getting warmed up in the teaching profession I reckon I have another years to go leering at he latest skirt length telling and retclllng my four Jokes trying to sort out ho difference between a dangling participle and a split infinitive How dare you retire when I have to go on working Well maybe I know at that You milt because vou worked like a dog for 30odd years in one of the toughest vocations in the world weekly editor I had 11 years of it and if I d continued I probably be pushing up right now We were in it together when you worked hours a week when you had a big mortgage to pay off when staff was tough to get and hard lo keep when the old press was breaking down and you couldn t afford a new one when you hod to when you were lucky to take home or a week right There was that sheer physical satisfaction of seeing the first copy run off and folded smelling of ink practically hot in your hands like a freshbaked loaf There was another type of reward knowing you had stuck lo your principles and strong and popular editorial leltinj tin ehips fill when thev micht There was the deep pleasure of seeing after months of writing and urging the reluctant town fathers adopt a policy that was right and good instead of merely expedient Some people would prefer lo be remembered by a plaque or a statue A good old lime weeklcy would die happy If they named a new sewage system or old folks home for which he had campaigned after him There many of the old breed left come to think of it George Mac Art Carr the Dcrksens of Saskatchewan The type of editor who could set a stick of type fix a machine run a linotype in a pinch carry the papers to the post office if necessary pound out an editorial There Is a new breed abroad In the land Many of them are graduates of a school of journalism This type wants every news story to be a feature article They all want to be columnists not reporters There mother among the young They to belli that a weekly shouldbcpoorbutproud They work on the cost of a columninch rather than records of peoples lives They wont die broke They believe in holidays and fringe benefits and all those things we never heard of and afford itb all for the best We were suckers We literally believed that an editors first allegiance the betterment of the entire community not himself Weekly newspapers today arc better looking fatter richer They are put together with scissors and paste printed at a central locution on a big offset which break down folded and bundled with dispiteh The only thing thai I improved is he postal delivery Hut great deal of that personal involvement is gone The editor is not is close to his reader as he once was When I was in the game I wis always introduced to stringers is This is our editor Not the editor of our paper but our editor Pete green pastures Keep your nose out of it and let the young guys make a mess of the paper We hid i goon session at the of the galley And of arthritic golf know where to come As practically almost school teachtr I think I can handle i retired editor timi Of this and that The Niagara and Midwestern Ontario Travel Association has issued a shiny colorful brochure to advertise this part of the country The promoters picked up the name Festival Country and the writers make this sound like a perfect place to live Luckily we do live here But you wouldnt know it from the brochure Acton is missing from the maps and has nothing to offer in the list of attractions Oh well Every days a fun day m Festival Country says the big brochure So we might as well keep smiling The Free Press Back Issues 20 years ago Acton Junior Pinners are presenting their onenet play Tiger I ily it the Junior firmer drama festival in tomorrow evening Director Joe Hurst is in charge of the production with the of Mr Mrs Ralph In the mike up department Mrs Don Matthews is prompter Jack Marshall Mac and Lawrence as stage In the cist ire Kathleen Stanley McDonald Mat Sandy and Bill Price night time intrusion by an known person or persons was reported last week this time at Aclon public school According to police no doors or windows were broken gam entry and no ipparent was caused by the intruders Milton unstable How ird his wife ind son Billy are now living near inrgetown family moved few weeks ilo to the William farm house on nth I me on south Mam St The formerly lived it It 1 Acton Con stable ikes his headquarters it Milton his police duties like him to irious of the northern section of Jhlton The Ho of directors his n imed its representitive il the mnuil meeting of tin N t Hindi in I this weekend secret iry Hob will ilsn be at London session pirliciiliirlj he workshop on small issocnlions in In 50 years ago from the Issue nf the t Press of Thursday 1120 Mr I B Mackenzie was elected vice president of the Retail s at their convention in Toronto Mr Mackenzie one of our leading businessmen occupies a commanding position among the lumber and coal dealers in this province and beyond Monday morning storm was the first which has effected the rams this winter The morning mail from Toronto was an hour late The new catalogues of this pur chases of new books for the Free I have been issued reader will desire i ind ma obtain such from he lihramn It is now the young girl who has not her hair bobbed who is the odd one is the most noticed Queer how soon one will become accustomed to the feminine conformities to the goddess fashion The turnip buyers report that there are still larjc quantities of turnips in hinds of the farmers he markets now arc have been made to the police respecting doings at the home of an on Cres Persons under tin influence of liquor are alleged have seen Ibis place ind a compliant he had been in a fight there A search was midc and gallons of wine seized I iter destroyed years ago from the Issue of the tree Press of Thursday IHIfi s ash wagon came to the other diy when crossing a smill lndie nc ir the r link engine house house rtc nave not learned mat anyone was hurt complimentary supper wis tendered to George Esq list Tuesday evening at Hotel is i token of the appreciation of his valu ible services for many in Township Council About of the intelligent vcomanry of the neighborhood and several from idistince assembled at the tables and full justice is done to the bountiful supply of things provided mine host King was forbidden from entering the room There were many ind speeches Mr Reeve of noted the vast improve which have taken place When he wis a man this township was con necled v ith the old Gore District and ill the municipal business was done in Hamilton But one representative was sent from this township twice a year Now that each has control of its own interests ire better represented Mr claims to be one of the oldest residents of the township now living in it lie was born on the western boundary of the township years ago when it was almost wilderness One of his sisters was the first female child born in Mr Heed The Major of bull reliled some humorous experiences or years ago when there were no Me once got stuck fast in Ihe mud with eight bushels of potatoes which he was tiking Hamilton THE ACTON FREE PRESS PHONE Business and Editorial Office