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Free Press Wednesday Aug 17 Editorial Page People most important Does anyone fully understand all the angles of the current issues in town the fire hall the town hall parking needs and the BIA From different people come different viewpoints and of course thats natural Different people we have en countered in the course of re porting whats going on have been unaware of what other people are thinking or doing Again its natural The problem is in commumca Everyone agrees we need parking What would be best One group feels the Hotchen lot is not a good idea Another group wants it Another angle there is a need for an open lot downtown for com munity events such as the Back to Acton Days and the proposed market Hotchen would provide some parking and that space even if it didn t extend through the block The same through the block plan can be envisioned for the future behind the stores on the north of Mill The opposing groups gathering information on parking are both doing their tasks for the good of the merchants and the good of the town t a public meeting on the subject help Couldn people from the planning department help answer busmesspeople s Couldn our councillors gather with all these people so the Opinion question raised can be answered at once The fire hall town hall projects are another case in point The architect for the town hall com mittee wanted to talk to councillors about some parts of the projects which would reasonably be co ordinated One heating unit for in stance Joint use of fire exits where the buildings would abut Nothing come of the request No meeting is being set up for the two groups to talk over their joint plans Now the firefighters see that if the town has available for them there could perhaps be better use of it Obviously there must be more meetings It is unfortunate but understand able that impatience develops But it would be foolish to proceed on any of these projects without more discussion The people making their pleas to council through appearances and petitions are all to be thanked and commended They are doing more than com plaining They are making their thoughts known in the right way Council response will correctly be to listen and talk some more There s nothing wrong in holding things up a little to try to co ordinate things An overall view of town ac commodations town offices community services centre senior citizens as well as the fire hall would seem to be in order too The system must not take precedence over the people On proposals by Hob Regional Chairman Morrow dropped a bit of a bombshell on regional councillors last week The report made available for councillors consumption on Wednesday among other things says there are loo many of them right now if chairman had his way he d send about half of the member council packing Those that remained would have to give up their seats on local councils and devote all of their political time lo the region According to Morrow the region plays second fiddle to local council work and from where he sits it seems that Just tickety boo Morrow is probably quite right when he says a councillor s first loyalty is to hit local council After all it is local people voting on local issues that put them there Councillors like the citizens they repre sent relate to the town or city they dwell in and any talk about the community of is just a bunch of By having councillors elected directly to the region and sitting only on the region the chairman figures the loyalty would change and regional council could finally get cracking on some of the problems facing the region for instance capital levies and equalized assessment Under Morrow idea of regional govern ment he rid himself and succeeding chairmen of the four area mayors In his press conference the chairman explained the mayors are just too busy taking care of the shop back home to have time to be good regional councillors Chairman t say so but it would be a lot easier to form a tight knit regional thinking crew of councillors without the four chief magistrates taking pot shots at the region In fact almost all of the recommend in the chairman report are designed to encourage regional thinking and enforce if not create the spirit of regionalism at the council table That s a perfectly normal ambition for a man paid twenty five grand a year to head regional government But promoting the spirit of regionalism is an ambition he shares with a steadily detaining number of councillors It is for that reason that his recommend FIVE HUNDRED people could soon be living at this corner if a proposal for the unit development goes North Halton Real Esstate owned by Paul through Nielsen and Gino are planning town houses semi detached homes and condominiums at the site There would also be a oneacre park Sugar and spice by bh smiiey I m engaged In writing a few yarns for the of the this brought a lot of memories some a bit grim some pretty hilinous the old mind eye v something hit mt like cold Nut that I tver cold douche Why so keen to gel killed In this ago of dropouts draft dogers deserters it seems incredible thai of young in iks hack in the Forties were almost get Into air force into crew into where Ihe chimes were excellent they d be dead within a couple of months From Ihc point of view of common sense reason logic it was not any brighter than the Children Crusade of Ihe Middle Why Certainly had no death wish We had no deep urge to cremate ourselves in the breath of the war dragon We weren t even running to the battlements to protect our homes our wives children Most of us were in school or just recently out and I have none of them there things Oh we knew we had to Slop as Churchill told us on an airfield in Norm and knew for Ihe greater part will probably be permanently shelved If on the other hand Morrow should manage to convince alters they should only sit at the regional level and convince half of them to go away the future of the region will be different indeed Continued on page For better or for worse I back from grandma house She lives In Acton town It used be a prelty place till they turned it upside down Now they re driving round in circles With Detours every way They found some oil below the soil bo hey rt piping it They fixed up all the sidewalks Right down to Uncle Jot It sad to tell how Grandpa fell I think he stubbed toes Our Susie got a brand new job She is the traffic cop She stays in place and wipes her face And SLOW and STOP Her boyfriend rides Ihc monsters That churn up all the dirt His body brown from his neck down Cause he never wears shirt While Important folk with papers Directing every movement Collect the tax for all the cracks To pay for this improvement When they finished fixing up he town An d emptied out the purse Will ihey be beautified and satisfied FOR BETTER OR FOR WORSE rithcr lhat we were defending and unemployment against the monsters of and full cm ploy nun although wab a bit puzzling thai lolilitan in Russia was on our side We knew joining up wis thing to do tint most of our friends were doing it that fellow looked fine in thit the girls were impressed and the hitch hiking easier Hut why the air foree And why air crew where dice wort loaded so heavily want to be exposed to the rude and liccn soldiery and get all dirty and grimy in action Or the navy because we pre ferred a fiery grave to a watery one just don know but most of my friends and most of their friends chose the air force and were dead keen on getting into air crew Within a bare few years most of them were lot less keen ind many were a lot more dead As I recall for those who failed Ihe tough medical test for air Once chosen you were filled with despair if you were going for pilot and had to settle for bomb aimer just because you were little crosseyed Once in training it was a shattering experience lobe washed out of air crew merely because you had badly bent up one of His Majesty aircraft by trying to land it feet up or had wound up miles off on a cross country training flight It was deviating if you wanted lo be a fighter pilot and were shipped off to lumbering old bombers I have friends who still bear a deep scar on psyche because they were made Hying instructors and spent the rest of the war in This despite the fact they were chosen as instructors because they were for belter pilots than the rest of us I his despite the fact thut many of the they rained were dead dead in no time None of this was any consolation hey still feel they missed something irre coverable Well I know what they missed They missed the stupidity of senior officers who t know whether they were punched or bored They missed long deadly dull periods of training and short Intense moments of sheer terror They missed being shot at physically perfect strangers and shot down billy by people on their own side They missed the utter blind confusion of the amateurs in charge of war Mi gawd those idiots lost an entire wing of Typhoons for a full week Nobody least of all Intelligence had a clue where it was I air hitched all over southern England and northern France before I found the blasted thing all on my Let see have I left anything out Well maybe I have 1 take that back about stupid senior officers There were plenty of those in Canada too so you didn t miss that Perhaps you missed the joy of climbing out of your aircraft after an operation lighting a cigarette and talking a wild blue slreak of relief and let down I guess you missed the glory of heading off for a week s leave in a strange country loaded with lust a month pay in your pocket and the secret sweetness in your head of knowing that nobody would be shooting at you for seven days And you did I must admit miss the girls Not all of those fumbllngs in the blackout were frustrating Bui I still say we were all crazy to volun leer and even vie to be killed Must write a paper on that some day The Free Press Back Issues 10 years ago Taken from he Free Press of Wednesday August 1967 Rev Peter has accepted a call to serve as pastor of Beth El Christian Re formed church He completed his studies at Calvin College Grand Rapids Michigan last spring and will be ordained here in Sep tember About Saturday morning fire was detected in a by foot frame workshop- garage at the home of Mr and Mrs Nor man Turner near Churchill The building its tools equipment were completely destroyed A newly purchased second hand truck parked outside the building received damage Mr and Mrs Mr and Mrs C and David and Mr and Mrs Don attended Expo in Montreal for a few days this past week Andre Broulllard of Aclon sustained a broken right wrist and cuts to his back and face in an accident in Georgetown Satur day August iz He was taken to George town hospital The vehicle was completely wrecked 20 years ago Taken from the issue of I- Press or Thursday Constable Hoy formerly of 0 this week took charge of Ihe North Halton district detachment of the Ontario Provincial Police He replaces Corporal Harold in lhat capacity Constable who has nearly 10 scars experience with theOPP began his police duties in Dun das and spent over nine years with Miss Joy Peal yearold Acton high school student received word this week from the Federation of Women Teachers Association of Ontario of her success in ob taining a bursary amounting to for entrance to Teachers College Toronto A happy reunion was held recently at the home of Joe Whit ham St Acton when his brother Jim of Bradford York shire England visited after years of separation The two brothers parted 30 years ago when Joe came to Canada and decided make his home here He has been a resident of Acton for many years and is the garage business years ago Taken from the Free Press of Thursday August 16 The public schools open next Monday Note and Foolscap paper Envelopes Slates Ink Pens Holders Pencil c at Hall of Pharmacy Times are very dull at the Falls The hotel men have had a bad season and the large houses will close a month earlier than usual The temperance reform movement has reached Nova Scotia Two thousand have taken the pledge in Yarmouth Those of our patrons who are Indebted to this office will greatly oblige us by paying upas early as convenient as we are very much in need of the money The closing of the large grocery and hardware establishment of Messrs Secord Bros is one of the many results or the hard times which we arc sure will be greatly deplored by the people in this section of the country It is one of the effects of having so liberally given credit We feel sure Messrs have the confidence as well as Ihe sympathy of the people of this community Mr William Campbell pulled six acres of peas last week on the farm of Mr John Anderson in less than a day and three- rulers He wants to know who can beat The terribly heavy rains have almost entirely ruined the greater part of the spring wheat In this vicinity The trustees of the Baptist church have about wooden benches with backs lately used In their chapel which they offer for sale at reasonable prices if Ive done it Ive finally done Ive driven down Main St I THE ACTON FREE PRESS PHONE 2010 Business and Editorial Office Copyright ERNIE made a special trip irom to bring in this old photo for Free Press readers It was taken in and is the combined upper grades of Acton public school Front row left to right Clarice Morton Helen Ostrander Terence Tom Gibbons Stewart Jim McGeachte John McGeachie Howard Switzer Charles Holmes Ernie Broughton unknown John Barber Aubrey and Bert Gibbons Second row Abbie Price Garden unknown Gordon Babcock unknown Glen Ryder Leonard Watson Lois Atkinson Isobel Bruce unknown Irene Cross Olive Clara Bauer Marjone Hall Gordon Hansen Taylor Henry Cripps Bill Williams unknown John Mellon Standing left of portico lower Lillian Perry Doris Oral Chalmers Ivy Holmes unknown Isobel Smith upper Violet Lantz unknown unknown V Tub man Wifia Nora Waterhouse Standing right of portico lower Thos Gibbons Jack Clifford Precious Frank Winters Carney Byrnes unknown unknown upper unknown unknown Jessie son Mary Gibbons unknow Doreen Masales unknown unknown Seated on steps lower Phyllis Lasby Beryl Tucker Kathleen Katherine Herb Woods Bert Hinton Standing in portico John Donaldson Bill Wilson Newton Hurst Gordon Cooper Bert Symon Stewart Malcolm teachers Miss Bennett Miss D