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Response predictable The study of regional govern ment has almost totally ignored the brief and name petition presented by the Actomans for Action committee The region committee headed by Milton mayor Don Gordon say they expected to hear back from Halton Hills before considering the report As for Halton Hills Mayor Tom Hill said last week that his council just filed the brief We didn t feel it concerned us he stated Yet at a regional meeting last week councillor Pat surprised Acton people by saying he supports a review by an in dependent task force just what the committee asked for in the first place All the people who so readily signed the petition asked for a study Not to leave the region as has been misinterpreted They asked for a study One of our councillors has told us he questions the value of petitions We don t When people get together it means something People know what they are signing They said they wanted a review and so they do Now their request has been ignored by area region and province Is this lack of response itself an outcome of regional government Was this result predictable The Acton Free Press Wednesday Mar 1978 A can of worms A can of worms What else can you call the latest in the town hall fire hall story Now the Department of Labour calls the town hall unsafe calling for implementation of recom mendattons consulting engineer Alan s report Mr Zeegen explains he reported what he saw and made no recommendations at all The problem seems to be with the roof and beams So what s to be done next Conservation recreation The suggestion that the Conservation Authority has to do better planning for the public use of its land than it has in the past is a statement with which we whole heartedly agree The statement is made by the conservation services director for Halton Region Conservation Authority However before the Authority embarks on an extensive 125 plaining of their properties for recreational purposes it is our hope they will go back to square one and determine once again what their conservation priorities are We are not m agreement that every or even most property owned by the Authority need necessarily be developed for recreational purposes If the recreational use of the presently developed parks has reached near capacity it does not necessarily follow in our minds that additional recreational facilities should be developed by the Conservation authorities The necessity of providing these Election will decide Mad at the government Not much Complaints Not many Mitchell Sharp was sent to Acton Monday to hear the concerns of Acton people Although the question period was short there seemed to be few pressing con cems in the room that just had to be heard by this distinguished representative of the government The chatting was pleasant and the questions the standard ones Admittedly Mr Sharp had all the answers The special worries of the leather industry were mentioned by him He spent his entire time here in the United church basement Mr Sharp won t have much to remember Acton by when the travelling caucus gets back to Ottawa He seems to have encountered a pretty contented bunch of ladies and gentlemen It a different story at the meetings of Progressive Conservative hopefuls though when criticism of the government gets hot and heavy The people of similar opinions seems to have stayed together the past couple of weeks and not got into each others camps It will obviously be at election time that the true opinions of the people become evident Of this and that People walking in the coun are unhappy to see fences deliberately cut along snowmobile paths Lakes small streams and rivers will soon be flooding and these areas can be hazardous to children who have played over them all winter Spring is on the way and the mixture of mushy ice flooding ditches and children can be dangerous Merchants have been getting together to advertise the fact that many of them are open for business on Thursday nights now their concern to combat the pull of Thirteen count em thirteen It becomes increasingly obvious the whole project was entered into with too much haste We ve used those words before so have others Why did the fire hall addition proceed before the future of the adjoining town hall was decided The firefighters haven got the parking they wanted yet If ever lack of cooperation and coordination was plain before the public eyes it s here at the corner of Willow and Bower THE LARGEST GROUP of Scouts to be invested in Acton at once passed through the ceremony last Thursday Thirteen boys count them joined the First Acton Scout ranks Front row left to right are Tim Sean Haefner Steven Derek Boyle David Van Der Eyken Tim Height and David Hargrave In back left to right are Andrew Ferguson Malcolm McLelland Adrian Alder Kevin Hoeng Wayne Chappel and Chris Luxon recreational facilities which ap parently draw their users from a wide geographical area would appear to us to be an obligation of the province rather than being financed by the Halton Region taxpayers Indeed the provincial park at Bronte may alleviate some of the demands on the Authority facilities It would seem logical that the Authority instead of developing parking lots and public toilets at each of its properties might gam a more receptive response from the taxpayers if the recreational planning and development budgets were used to compensate property owners whose land has to be made virtually valueless through the Authority land use restrictions The proposed meeting between the Natural Resources Ministry and the Conservation Authority might well consider putting more conservation and less recreational development as a subject of the agenda Sugar and spice by bh smi the big plazas as best they can Shop and Save in Friendly Acton is their motto Young people in town next weekend will be here for the provincial basketball champ ionships We trust they II find a friendly welcome here For the first time in 20 years or so there will be no special inter denominational services here during Holy Week Churches are continuing to hold their own separate services It was one of the few times people from various churches got together but attend ance had been dwindling My Involvement the Assoc at ion brings back a lot or memories some a bit grim some pretty hilarious As the old mind eye wandered bach something hit me like a cold douche Not that I ve ever taken a cold douche Why were we so keen to get killed In this age of dropouts draft dodgers and deserters it seems incredible that thous back In the were almost frantic to get into the air force Into air crew and Into a squadron where the chances were excellent they d be dead within a couple of months From the point of view of common sense reason logic it was not any brighter than the Children Crusade of the Ages Why Certainly wo had no death wish We had no deep urge to immate ourselves in the breath of the war dragon We weren even running to the to protect our homes our wives and children Most of us were In school or just recently out and didn t have none of them there things Oh we knew we had to Stop as Churchill once told us on an airfield in Normandy We knew rather vaguely that we were defending democracy and unemployment against the monsters of Totalitarianism and full employment puzzling that Totalitarian Russia was on our side We knew Joining up was the thing to do that most of our friends were doing it that a fellow looked pretty fine in a uniform that the girls were impressed and the hitch hiking easier But why the air force And why air crew where the dice were loaded so heavily Did we avoid the army because we dldn t want to be exposed to the rude and lous soldiery and get all dirty and grimy in action Or the navy because we preferred a fiery grave to a watery I just don t 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 a lot less keen and many were a lot more dead As I recall it was a real downer for those who failed the tough medical test for air crew Once chosen you were filled with despair if you were going for pilot and had to settle for bombaimer just because you were a little crosseyed Once In braining it was a shattering experience to be washed out of air crew merely because you had badly bent up one of His Majesty aircraft by trying to land or had wound up 300 miles off course on a crosscountry training flight It waa devastating If you wanted to be a fighter pilot and were shipped off to lumbering old bombers I have friends who still bear a deep scar on the psyche because they were made flying Instructors and spent the rest of the war In Canada This despite the fact they were chosen as Instructors because they were far better pilots than the rest of us This despite the fact that many of the pilots they trained were dead dead In no time None of this was any consolation They feel they missed something irrecoverable Well I know what they missed They missed the stupidity of senior officers who know whether they were punched or bored They mined long deadly dull They missed being shot at physically by perfect strangers and shot down verbally by people on own side They missed the utter blind confusion of the amateurs in charge of the war those idiots lost an entire wing of Typhoons for a full week Nobody least of alt Intelligence had a clue where It was air hitched all over southern England and northern France before I found the blasted thing all on my own Let see have I left anything out Well maybe I hove First 1 11 take that back about stupid senior officers They were plenty of those In Canada too so you didn miss that Perhaps you missed the joy of climbing out or your aircraft after an operation lighting a cigarette and talkinga wild blue streak of relief and let down I guess you missed the glory of heading off fora week leave in a strange country loaded with lust a month s 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 But I still say we were all crazy to volun and even vie to be killed Must write a paper on that some day Our readers write The spirit of womens lib The Editor Acton Free Press Re The Spirit of Lib From the Legend of Fairy Lake It Is said that once In a whllo usually during the balmy months of wine and roses he lovely Lady of the Lake emerges from her abyssal depths to scrutinize the current thinking and active divergencies of those among her darling daughters In whom now is vested the political power to change the course of events This as always will be significantly shaped by their womanly will to persist When last observed laced as usual but sporting a creatively updated hairdo It was thought that the somewhat querulous gaze of the Eternal Mama contained at least a hint of uncertainty For nearby battered but still intact lay a monstrous heap of toppled pedestals Though barely visible It was at first glance evident that mans Ideal concept of sweet and soft felicitous and enduring womanhood lay hidden beneath a surge of devious liberations Assuming that her next visitation will occur in time for this years double- barreled electioneering bombardment Ills reasonable to suppose that the tremendous weight of this lady influence no longer underestimated will bear heavily upon Its final outcome A glossary of related terms Conservative Keeping or tending to keep things unchanged Leaving things as Ihey are Upholding traditional ways Democrat Advocate of democracy whereby sovereign power resides in the people as a whole Franchise The right to vote In politics the right to vote for the election of a qualified candidate an Individual for membership in a state s legislative body Independent Autonomous Free to follow a chosen course without any degree of subservience to the dictates of party allegiance Liberal Not rigorous unprejudiced In politics favourable to constitutional change Rights Entitlements Elements of that vastly expansive aspect justice within the scope of which the very essences of human dignity may be ground to a pulp- when lost among the intangibles of morality privilege and legal wrangling Sincerely Norman Courtney The Free Press Back Issues 10 years ago Taken from the lssne of the Free Frets March 13 IBM Fire which apparently broke out In an egg grading room destroyed most of the front end of a modem poultry bam and 3800 chickens Friday morning The destructive blare was on the farm of Alfred Newman RR 1 Acton while Mr and Mrs Newman were away on business Northern Tackle plant In was completely destroyed by fire Tuesday night during a driving snowstorm The factory is housed In a converted freight shed by the Rockwood station The old building was one of the village s landmarks Nearly donated blood at the regular clinic In the Legion hall on Monday Appointments had been made in advance following phone calls but anyone was welcome 20 years ago Taken from the Issue of the Free Press of Thursday March 1K8 Rev CosteruB of the Acton Baptist church announced this week he was leaving Acton to take charge of churches at Delhi and TeetervUIe Committee rooms will be buzzing Mon day night when the results are an nounced Liberals are represented by Ken Dick and the Conservatives by Sandy Best Jack Henry is the C C F candidate There will be five nightly in terdenominational services during Holy Week Ernest West will speak on Sunday evening A photographer camera being used by Bob of the Manltoulln Expositor at Little Current was stolen from beside the pulpit of the United Church there during a farewell party recently 50 years ago Taken from the Issue of the Free Press Milt 1928 The Acton Continuation School Literary Society held a meeting at the school on Thursday evening March 1 to determine a winner of the Oratorical Contest Marjorie Switzer and Jessie Young had both tied for first place A trio of Acton motorists had a bad ex perience on the winter roads on Sunday afternoon Mr and Mrs A Inrig and Mrs McCleary had left Sunday about two clock and at the Silver Creek Hill on the Seventh Line ran into a snow drift from which it was impossible to get the car Two other Acton motorists came along and proceeded to shovel them out They were good motorists but were not prepared for breaking In a snowstorm The buses came along the one from the east and the other from the west and they were obliged to transfer passengers as the road was completely blocked by stalled cars To have lived nearly a century and seen nine generations of his family was the remarkable experience of the late Jack Beaton whose death Is reported About 20 years ago he left where he had made his borne From Mr Beaton went to Dakota where be died recently in his year Mr Beaton lived to actually see nine generations He knew his great great grandfather his father his brother and sister his grandchildren great grand children and his great great grand children Thus he knew four generations before his own and four succeeding generations 100 years ago Taken from the Issue of the Free Press of Thursday March 1878 Who is going to give the next band social It is well known that the Acton Brass Band does not receive the encouragement which It deserves from the private citizens of this village The Band requires several new instruments which will necessitate the out lay of a considerable sum of money and It is to be hoped that our citizens will come for ward and lend a helping hand Don all speak at once A wedding procession passed through town yesterday On Friday morning at two o clock the carriage works of Mr James Ryder corner of Mill and Elgin was discovered to be on fire An alarm was Immediately sounded from the Church bell A large crowd of villagers assembled but there being no fire engine In the village they had to carry water in palls to throw on the flames The twostorey frame building burned with a fearful rapidity The house soon caught fire and burned to the ground along with the factory The loss amounts to Insurance covers Mr Ryder Intends to build a brick building which will be an ornament to Acton THE ACTON FREE PRESS PHONE Business and Editorial Office Co LM Copyright 1978