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Mm press rib every Wednesday by Inland Publ Co Urn lndai59Wlow Street Actoi Telephone S ngte each GO pot 1 1 Canada all as than Canada Acton Froo Pres Inland Publish Co L papors Nov Post Tl Thorn II at and Sun Tho lion Canad Norn Aurora Weekend and Tho Sloultv buna In Founded In Don McDonald Publisher Is on id I on ihai In leal error that en I gnat no il not bo god or but of II be al api In tl a error ng goods old goods cos may not bo old Advert merely an EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT Editor Editor Helen Murray Report Sportm Editor ADVERTISING DEPARTMENT sing Mann gar I Cook BUSINESSACCOUNTING OFFICE Office Manager Fran G lison Thornh II t CIRCULATION ifiur PHONE853 Business and Editorial Office 6 The Acton Free Press Wednesday Dec 20 1978 Members of The Free Press staff write their impressions of Christmas this Heck as wc stand on the threshold of another Gramma I miss you Christmas has changed in the past six years around my home The first change in was the addition of a brother in low The next year not only had we acquired a sister In law but only a few weeks before Christmas baby came onto the scene giving three extra hearts to share our festive day Two years later there was another ad another baby The family was in deed expanding By the next Christmas there was one more addition and so far the last my husband Gord that Christmas also marked the first Christmas without our grand mother Never had we had a Christmas without her She was always there Christ mas Eve and the next morning ready to share a happy or wipe away a disap pointed tear Through the year we shared her with sins hut on Christmas she was all ours every ear and in a way every year to come also It is only my brother sisters and I who tot to share memories of the old lady So many times she would fall asleep sitting at the top of the stairway guarding the only way down to the Christmas tree What she didn figure on was that we were yount and agile and able to slide down the bannister to get past her What t know was that she had one eye open i Murray watching us You set she kntw our mother was sleeping on the bottom step which because of our short Itgs we had to to get off the bannister So many times Gramma would sit on the edge of the bed Christmas eve and till us not to be disappointed if Santa didn bring us what we wanted The important thing was that wt were altogether It was some thing I don think fully understood until she died Chnslmis morning it was always Gramma who us back fiom the tret to allow Mom and Dad to have a few extra hours sleep After all she used to say it vvasonlyIam However soon Mom was up and we were pleading with her to wake our father In the early the gifts from Gramma were always the same thing a pencil case It was treasured until tin next Christmas By the time I reached college however I prLferred something cist Tht pencil case turned into cash which wis my gas money from Colhngwood back to school in Oakville Now that Gramma is gone and I m ap proaching my third without I long for the plastic pencil cose tht stern gel back to bed I wish could hear say Christmas Gramma I miss you Give Santa his own day Ini Christmas You love it or you get through winter without it but you can hate it I don dislike Christmas but then again I can t ignore it cither this time round because my editor bless Mr Coles Gnnch he irt gently coerced his subject into in flicting upon you my thoughts feelings and impressions of Christmas folks city and country admit to themselves and others Christmas is one of the most enjoyable seasons Here is my ad mission that Christmas Is THE most able season though there should be some improvements Tins edition of Christmas is going lo be a specnl one for me and family Mrs my Mom retired a couple of weeks at so next Monday will be one of the few in the past years when one of us has not had to go into work Mom worked for C N Tele communications in Toronto and more often than not there seemed to be some job inter with Christmas One of the big about Christmas will be being home and seeing friends that I norm illy meet once a year Something that contributes to the renewed ties with family friends is the unusual sense of time I detect About Christmas Eve lime seems lo start to float No I have not been drinking The clocks still hum away but we can afford to spend more time with each other get to know other better if only to discover what someone else has been doing for the last days though it pays my rent falls into the minus column Much of the ad radio TV and newspapers that assaults me though out the balance of the year I can get by without That is some thing to be lived with But most Christmas advertising turns my Commercial is not another way to spell Christmas I don t want to find a camera in the first present I Istom open and Hi Karate deserves the chop I suppose most of my revulsion stems from the knowledge that none of ads art spontaneous detail is to sell you you don want There is very little spontaneity about Christmas music either but much of it is pleasing I ike the advertisements radio stations slart airing carols and forms of Christmas musit somctimt in But the musit of season is finished so quickly In the opening moments Boxing Day or the day iflcr it latest it s lo Sang tht Bet Gees and John Tht jolt is loo muth plus is he of Christmas Inthehomt it swarm it s told The of ted ir home thicktn dinner with all trimmings of course flare the The gold silver red green blue and yellow decorations gleam the eye the music fills the ears One the other points I like about mas is he efforts by some families to put Christ back in Christmas Against what often must appear whelming odds exist dedicated folks who very much like to i dose religion into he of December And that by me This lime of year was once marked is Christ s Mass That was Ion before bellying onto scene Giving the man in the red suit his own day say December would make a clear distinction between the secular and religious parts of the season In he which pride themselves in their skills in toping with changes this is one I think wc handle Besides the churches deserve at least equal lime with the department stores The family is together by Robin Christmas is a time when families are together as long as I can remember my grandparents have joined us in celebrating the festive season with the exception of our last Christmas My grandparents were In the process of moving back to England lost year and were out of the country at Christmas It was the first lime they had not been with us over the holidays and they were sadly missed The morning tea was not the same without them and the table looked bare with only four plates instead of the six Not only was It the thought of not having them for Christmas we knew that we had probably seen our last Christmas with Ihem as they were retired and would not likely to be travelling back and forth Wewcre wrong This Christmas when we wake lo the sweet smell of the turkey will once again be with us They arrived three weeks ago for the festive season and will help make another Merry Christmas in our home The table will once again be surrounded by six plates for Christmas dinner and as far as I am concerned that is what Christmas is all about togetherness and sharing A time when the family gets together lo lhank God for their good for tunes and life itself Whos for a Lastember then lung you look i one moriunf there December in all its bitter east wind driving snow ind told thill settles in tin vtry bonts of is slurp as i witcti loom sir in doors and wind wife of the rnble from basement t investigate and find that one of tilt windows his been blown in has snushed in tht woodpile You wood knocking pieces shins knuckles jam some in MP Creep and nearly bust y our bum The re s ite under that ihor it to tin garage and find that your car doors ire ill frozen solid shut Btat them with your bare fists until the 1 ittir bleeding your tar is full of dents I them open with a bucket of hot He r of both r is i trying time tor one thing its so dang SUDD There you tottering ilong a day at a time it still fall and you must get Ihe tires storms on one of these fine and throw some firewood into the tell ir and some boots and replace the you lost losl Christmas is aw ly off there Sllthtr and ist your way to work in foul mood and with bart hands crippled into claws bootless feet told is a other appendage ome out of work to go home and find i half inch of frozen rain and snow covering your tar and no sign of your another deep dent where some idiot slid into your ear door on the lol I tould on and on but it s only rubbing silt m tht wounds of ivcragc Cimdian Get home from work find that the furnace is on the blink and the repairman is tied up for the next two days And your wife is also fit lo be tied up over your Surely there is some way around tins of December Is there not some far seeing politician if that is not a ton in terms who would introduce a bill lo provide or an extra month bet ween let say November and December t care what he called it It could be referring fast hope that there I be a winter his year Or Last Call or Warning or She Anything lhat gave us good jolt OUR READERS WRITE Why not clean all sidewalks Dear Sir I am writing to you because I was walking lo the stores not being able to drive and just about fell and broke what ever So I walked on Ihe road and some nut just about ran over me My point Is If the town can take the lime lo clean the sidewalks downtown why can whoever does them do side street side walks loo After all whit the elderly people arc lhey lo stay in all winter so they don t break their necks And if you have children who walk to school are to walk on tht sidewalks and break something Or walk on the road and get run over by some nuf Why doesn the town or whoever dots the sidewalks lake a little more lime and do the side streets too They could do the ones downtown a little better as well Name withheld Countdown on Christmas Santas Claws For some reason always tend to look at of Ihe past for inspiration for another one I suppose we glamorize and embroider them forgetting about rush anxiety and other wc experienced complain wo will never be ready Christmas cards haven I been sent Turkey prices are sky high We can get colored bulbs we want for the strings of lights to hang up but haven t had lime for yet The list is endless by Hanky Coles So on we go on that headlong rush for Christmas By ihe time feast day arrives we re completely tuckered out with the stampede getting ready for it Idiotic t It Don t you envy people so well organized they don t have that frantic last few days They havecards sent out in the first week or December Their turkey Is ordered or in their freezer The tree Is up and beautifully decorated presents wrapped and stowed continued on With equal rights to women And their Liberation stuff They ve taken Bob from Santa Job wasn good tnough In a newly decorated booth With children on her knee Sits bister Barb in Santa garb As happy us can be nil Johnnie recognized his Ma And being full of Nick He raiRed her skirt so it would hurt And gave her shins a kick Then Mama grabbed him by the neck And made his bottom bare understand from Santa hand He gut his present there Now my hat Is off to Santa Claws Who gave Just what was needed A dollar earned a lesson learned Nothing went unheeded li would a tiling for merchants have special sales of gloves and boots and snow lircs and ear muffs guns wejther stripping and antifreeze and nose war mers before plunging into their pre Chnslmis salts v tilth are rtpl by their Jininrv sales would be for the Post start us in June that ill stinas mail must posted by the diy of if it before the following It would in ikt nice talking point for all those deserters and traitors and nth every year Instead of smirking Oh we re not going south until D Hilt to miss in old fishiontd tould it to us by leering we thought win this year until last day of you know Avoid the pushing vulgantv of the rush If nothing else it would give us from the missive nauseiting volume of pre Christmas advertising which begins tow ird end of Ottobcr and continues remorstltssly right into Christmus Btsl of all perhaps it would dummies like me a chance lo avoid looking like such a dummy who flourish during sunny November such as we had this year would have no more excuses All their wives would have to do is point calendar and say Bill do you it s only three days until it you did your In act if that fearless politician who is introduce the Lastember Bill in the house wonts somt advice here is a for him Somewhere in the Bill should be warning in bold type will be Prosecuted Jeez why not They prosecute you for everything cist If such a month were added to the maybe we start it with Grey Cup Day people like me wouldn go on thinking that Christmas is weeks away Instcid on Ihe last day of Lastember with all their winter chores In hand they d know hat Christmas was practically on top of them a big old horse blanket and leap into the proper spirit lining up a Christmas tree laying in their booze tuning up their pipes for tht carols As it is now wc know that Christmas is likt a miragt Its way off there some where and no need to panit Then Willi that startling it s December all the Christmas trees have been bought the only remaining turkeys look like vultures and Ihe liquor Is bedlam Who for a Laslembcr The Free Press Back Issues 10 years ago from issue of the tree Press of Thursday December 1H IMS Sunta Claus can come long short or tall but the of the lot was Zenith Arm strong dressed as Santa for the Tyler Christmas party Miss Acton dlstri tifts to he large crowd at he music A survey conducted by Grade students suggests a need for an indoor swimming pool in Acton Roger Bill Field Nigel Hoe and Dave Broostad conducted the survey under the direction of Joe Bray James Singleton was appointed dir eclor of education for county Mayors reeves and deputy reeves of ton will meet with Minister of Municipal Affairs lo discuss regional government The Slim and Trim class at the Robert Little school with Mary Golem as in splurged with a Christmus party Mrs leaner Donaldson celebrated her birthday was part f the C G I vesper servitt with Mary Sandra Patterson Jones Linda Perry irol Mosaics Martha Long Carol and Mary Ann Men annual turkey draw was held their in the Saturday Ed I eatherl Mrs White were two who were present opened i new ad which the of their 20 years ago jkonfrutn tin Issue of the free Press Dm mbcr il Ovtr children greeted Sanla it lie Christmas pirly at the it I title school auditorium on ifternoon Prior lo Santi the children were kept entertained In puppet show and rained horse it of people the below temper Hurt on Saturday morning to view ihe colorful Santa Claus parade sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce llii pande included Acton Cilizcns Band md Junior Pipe band eight floats md float be Sinti himself After fmi the three mile route the proces sir n finished at high school where Santa handed out of candy Mrs Alger as Goose and her school class were on fl it Tyler and Dolores Tyler dressed as with George Barbeau s Preston and rode on Jack Spratt float and Patricia were Peter i iter his wife Acton firefighters ippcircd on the Good Ship Lolhpop children from Robert I ittle mil Bennett lock part in a progrim Banks music and I Coptlind of the leaching stiff directed theirs S inta id time at the Legion when Ik handed out gifts to children veterans ntertamed dressed as a clown rtpresentative White- loek is retiring 50 years ago I km fro ml In Issueof the 1 Press of evening December 1928 of suggestions from Hilt Mill St fopieee set of dishes pieces Sundiv Sthool joined in a Christmas tea lakint part in Iht program were Kitty lsobelSwitzer A T Brown and Moore superintendent emeritus sthool room was filled to for thtir The pupils showtd their ability in choruses health exercises the in Mountain Dance recitations and dialogues Jatkand Mom McGeachie excelled them selves in their Scottish accom pained by Jim McGeachie Splendid tenor solos were sung by Mr S pamed by Nellie Lane Santa Claus liultd many treats Miss Hall is the teacher 100 years ago I from Hit Issue of Hie Free Press Thursday morning 187K We our patrons will excuse us In issuing only a half sheet this week pagts A number of country papers do not issue ill Christmas week St Alba church in Acton has custom al Christmas time feslooned with There art also a number of mottoes on wall Tin ml trior presents an exceedingly pleasant appearance On account of the entertainment in the Methodist tonight the skating rink will tlostd Hit tdilor of Hit Milton News found It impossiblt to issue a piper week The mental stnun would have been loo much for him to stand No doubt his readers will be gratified thus being relieved for one short week of Ihe trouble of trying un his pointless articles