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4 The Acton Free Press Wednesday 1977 Editorial Voting treasured right Our right to vote is a treasure that must be cherished And like good silver it should be used Thursday is election day It is important for every voer to consider the issues and chose the person to vote for The Free Press has given coverage and there have been advertisements personal visits and mailings The Meet the Candidates night was the main preelection push here and the turnout of voters there was about what would be expected It would be great if the turnout of voters could be much greater than expected all across the province tomorrow Library 10 years old The town s library is marking its 10th birthday this week The new building was the pride of the com munity when it was erected 1967 as the town s centennial year project The location and size much discussed at the time now prove that the right decisions were made Community use was considered thoroughly Room was provided for meetings and expansion when necessary downstairs The growing population is now easily accom modated The centennial gifts presented to the library are still there The 10year debentures are all paidanditsdebt free The library was Acton Expo and it s more a benefit to the town now than it was even then Retirements of note A few words of appreciation to Jack and Pearl Rol who have retired after 17 years of helpful and very personal service at Caroline Nurseries and Garden Centre They developed a close attachment to their customers and had a mental file of hundreds of people s preferences They were cheerfully willing to work long and unusual hours to fill funeral and wedding orders The customers always felt the friendliness there The will still be active in the community Acton friends join in extending best wishes to Jack who has just retired after a 30year career in municipal life Acton and Milton He sat till all hours with Acton councils and presided over the old style nomination meetings He was always helpful with advice and opinions He and his wife Helen and their family were part of this community for many years and are still often back visiting friends and familiar places Best wishes for a happy retire ment to both these couples Our roots are different Many people watched with the American television series Roots Can help but wonder how many people are aware of Canada s share in the story Canada was one of the first places to legally outlaw slavery and before Confederation there were many blacks in Canada At that time there were more blacks than whites in Kent and Essex counties Many of them owned farms there and had become citizens Their descendants are spread throughout the country now Many returned to the States after the Civil War The Underground Railway was the name of the escape route for blacks The frightened slaves were aided on their way and usually crossed the border at Windsor Uncle Tom s Cabin written by Harriet Beecher Stowe told of the terrible life of the slaves and gained them much sympathy The 100 years ago column records how this play drew a great crowd of to the Drill Shed on the Queens birthday Her for the story was a man who took the Underground Railroad to Canada and his former home at Dresden is now called Uncle Toms Cabin Although there are many more books about Canada than there used to be still Canadians are filled with American history through books TV and movies Our roots are different and deserve publicity FIVE BY THREE These ten week old quintuplet sheep at the Nodwells farm in Hillsburgh take a lot of looking after by left to right Linda Wright son Gordon and sister Nina The sheep were delivered by caesarian section at the On Veterinary College on March The mother nursed three and two were cared for by a foster mother and milk bottle supplement BENEATH THE sheltering evergreens a small detachment of Legionaires and Legion Ladies Auxiliary members gather for a few moments before planting geraniums of graves of their comrades It s Decoration Day 1977 style a scaled down version of past formalities Lower attendance prompted the decision to abandon the parade and non denominational service this year of the deepest in writing i column of this kind is the know Iwlgp tint you are getting into print the angers and frustrations of a lot of other people who have no recourse for their resentments and consequently lake them out on Ihc old mm or the old I Hoi to you know this Well people write letters cheering on on to furtl ind other people come up to you perfect strangers shake hands warmly soy By the Holy Jump in Hill you hit Ihc nail n Ihe head his can be a little disconcerting as never quite sun nail they in referring lo if the tula tor is woman smile weakly and change the subject sure is guns though thought you were one of natures noblemen for on He chauvinism lasl week she turn on you like a snake when she roids tomorrow paper whith he column exposing ftimle recently to diss of potential mi ere writing course I tried to pass alont the personal satisfaction one gets from this type of personal Journalism I the personal sat isfaction because there si lot more of thai involved thin Ihere s of the kind Columnists and writer hive no union working for them nor any professional association is hive doctors buyers teachers Ihty hive only their own talent and and perseverance with which to Dendrite the thick heads thlckcrs skins of editors publishers Hut it s feeling when you vent jour wrath s about the rapaelousness of mechanics ind you are button holed six times Ihc three days by people with horror stones about mechanics you can scarcely believe Trouble is they all you lo another column about mechanics and but somt re il into it This means in effect they would stand in the v n I ippl when you were sued for hi el Some readers vould like you to be con stantly whatever it is lint Ihey like Capitalist friends are aghast when you refuse launch an assault on capital galas friends think you are fink when you won attack the government for not providing color TV for everyone on the take I am not by nature an attacker and I think there is nothing more boring than a writer of any kind who tries to make car of being a hard hitting journalist Once in a while my gently bubbling niture boils over Throwing caution and syntax the winds I let my spleen have a field day and try throw some sand In the grease with which many aspects of society are to give us a snow job And that one of the finest paragraphs I ever writ ten if mixed metaphors ore bag gome for the are gor age mechanics plumbers postal workers supermarkets civil servants and clans Most of them can t hit bock and everybody hates Ihem except garage mechanics and their wives plumbers and their wives etc fry are doctors lawyers teachers used cor salesmen They all squeal like dying rabbits when attacked but nobody pays much altenilon to them except doctors and their wives etc arc a few areas even the hardest hitters avoid When have you Sugar and Spice by bill smiley lately read a savage attack on greedy far mcrs callous nurses or unloving mothers And yet there are lots of Ihem around One of these perhaps one of these hard writers will muster enough guts after five brandies to launch in all out attack on the of women nking they re as good as men Lloy that fellow will learn what real hird hitting is all about I cm t stay mad at anybody long enough lo be a voice of the people or a public watchdog of those creatures who try to tell other people how they should feel The only constant in my rage Is the ant of self seeking poll liei ins who will twist and warp and wrig gle md squirm and bribe for self per in office Otherwise I get great deal more joy from touching the than in flaming Ihe masses When I get a letter from in old lady in hospital ppled with arthritis who has managed to get chuckle out of my column it makes me feel good I got a letter from a younc Scot who has immigrated to Canada He says I have learned more and through reading your column thin all the accumulated wisdom from the Canadian newsmagazines novels and programs I have absorbed Now there is man with his head screwed on right If I as a newcomer tried to get my impressions of this country from newsmagazines and TV programs I d catch the first boat or plane home So 1 guess 1 Just try to go on talking to people getting sore having some fun bragging about my looking for sympathy in the war between the sexes Tint what life is all about not plumbers and politicians and horrors of that ilk OUR READERS WRITE Sees need for parking Being a former resident of Acton for some 27 years lfelt as did many others that reconstruction of Mill Street was long over due When I heard that the much needed reconstruction and widening program had been completed I was anxious to see the new and better core area I am sorry to say that apart from new sidewalks and asphalt the greatest problem was still present That problem is traffic and parking and is as atrocious now as It was ten years ago With buses trucks and cars parked on both sides of the street it becomes an obstacle coarse to find your way from one end of town to the other To restrictparklngtooncsldcof the street is solution that immediately comes to mind and no doubt causes some problems but surely he main objective of this rccon is to modernize the downtown area and to overcome the past problems People are not attracted to a conjested dangerous area such as you now have unless they are forced to I m sure that local merchants realize that decentralized parking would better promote customers and business in the town Planning Is good only if It is effective If the present situation remains I feel that the town has stepped backward a great cost to its citizens Dave Ryder Reunion at Gravenhurst the Ontario was incorporated as a village in 1H77 This means thai we are celebrating our Centennial in 1J77 We know that former residents and friends of our town arc scattered across Canada and around the world Wc invite them all to join us for a Grand Reunion on Friday July I the beginning of our Old Of this and that Home Week 1 or more informition please write Centennial Box ravenhurst Ontario Thank you for the use of your space Yours sincerely Cyril Chairman Centennial Committee A employee was un upset Friday when she discovered her car in the parking lot had been damaged by a hit and run driverfor the second time in four months Such thoughtlessness is hard to un derstand There have been many com ments about the cheery looking new interlocking sidewalk stones We erred somewhat last week in calling them bricks In fact they are made of cement and are ex tremely durable It is something of a surprise to see they are not laid perfectly flat but rather in an undulating way along the length of a street We had supposed the earth below would have been perfectly level first However good reports on them come from other places and they certainly are attractive It looks as if our merchants care More congratulations to Nancy Wong and Kevin Parker who picked up more honors at the Hills awards program last week Pie in the sky politicians usually use our dough The smallest good deed is better than the grandest good intention The Free Press Back Issues 10 years ago Token from of the I- rec Press Wednesday June 1967 J red Dawkins completed his course in Commerce and inancc a I Ihc University of Toronto with first class honors standing third in class He was awarded the W F gold medal in Commerce and Finance by Victoria College Fred Salt was hired as the new secretory treasurer of district high school board at their meeting on Monday evening He replaces Billy who is retiring from the position but will assist his sue during the summer Mr Salt has re tired from and Co With a crowd of about joining in formal dedicatory responses Acton Cen tennial I was officially opened under summer blue skies on Saturday afternoon The happy occasion culmination of three years of hopes and planning brought townspeople and special guests to cluster around the fine new for the cere monies Mr and Mrs Doug Mason and Mr and Mrs McLachern arc attending the Ontario Hydro convention in Cornwall this weekend Mr and Mrs it enjoyed a few days at While they were away Mrs Latin Ditlnch kept the stationery store 20 years ago from Ihe issue of ihc ree Press June 13 A fire reported to have started by some one throw matches in the outside letter drop at the post office was discovered be fore serious damage resulted Monday Noticing smoke in the post office corridor Mr caretaker and Mrs investigated and found the bin where the mail is deposited on the west side of the post office in flames The f re chief and local police were notified and loss was confined to the letters in the deposit box Smdy Best was named Member of Parliament Monday when he was swept to office by the county largest plurality and becomes the county youngest representative The 35year old representing the Progressive Conservatives rolled up an plurality defeating Kenneth V Liberal can d date and Jack Henry C C candidate and Mrs A J Buchinan left yester diy to attend the annual convention of the Canadian Dental on being held in Winnipeg next week They will travel by motor and by boat from Port to Fort Williams 100 years ago Taken from ihe Issue of The Free Press of Thursday June 1877 A medium sized fellow about years of age with spectacles arrived in Acton last Saturda afternoon After looking around the village for a short while he went in to s hotel and ordered a good meal and the best room in the house He told the landlord confident ally that he was a member of Allan detective force of Chicago and he was working up a robbery case He then went out for a walk and entered s hotel where he gave a similar order and waited till tea wos ready He partook of a hearty meal and then strolled back s and repeated the operation being bound lo have enough lo eat at all events He went to the Montreal telegraph office and sent an unpaid telegram Whilst waiting a reply he went to Lcven barber shop for a shave In the meantime Mr was informed one of his table napkins was missing Mr Maney went to the barber shop and pulled forth the napkin from the vest of Mr Detective He mediately wilted and began pleading for mercy He was let go with a tonguelashing and part of oman shoot He had to pay for the shave by pawning fivecent watch chain The answer to his telegram awaits him the bill for two suppers He pears to be not only a professional dead beat but also one of the meanest kind of sneak thieves Such characters need watching THE ACTON FREE PRESS PHONE Business and Ed lor Office 1976 award winner Copyright 1977