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The Acton Free Press Wednesday July Men Don McDonald Publisher Founded In every by Inland Co United at Wltaw Street Acton kj Telephone Single copies each am Canada 3O00unci Tha Acton Free Pies la one of Inland Publishing Co Limited group of which Tha Whitby Tha Brampton Guardian Pott Garene Georgetown Independent MadihamThornhrllEconomatandSun Tha Milton Canadian Champion Tha Newmarket Aurora Eta Baavsr Thta Weak Oahawa Thia Waakand SloulfviBe Titouna Advan accepted on thai in tha event of typographical that portion of the advertising by the ham together with remonebta or not be charged for but balance of theadvertfaeRiemwttbe paid for at the rata In the avant of a typographical error good or wrong price goods or cervices may not be sold Advartaing an offer to eel and may be withdrawn at any time Second data me Number 0515 EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT Editor- Hartley Coles New Editor Helen Murray Editor Robin Irucoe ADVERTISING DEPARTMENT Manager Cook Advenfalng BUSINESSACCOUNTING OFFICE Office Manager Fran Canon Rhone ThornhHI CaorynAton CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT Manager TELEPHONE 519 Business and Editorial Office Loiterers a problem Chamber of Commerce officials and representatives of Halton Regional Police are meeting tonight to discuss mutual pro blems and hopefully arrive at some solutions The Chamber in a letter to the police recently noted they were opposed to initiating police patrols from Georgetown instead of the Acton office They also brought out the considerable problem in downtown Acton where loitering has become a way of life It creates a negative ap pearance for visitors discourages new business and poses a problem for shoppers who find store en trances barred by loiterers and sidewalks sometimes impassable The Chamber notes Obviously this can only have a negative effect on the everyday business in the downtown area The Chamber also suggested possible measures such as foot patrols increased visibility of local officers letters to families stressing parental responsibilities for children no loitering on main streets and other solutions to solve the problems Although the problem is differ now it is interesting to note the 100 years ago column of Tbe Free Press has an item which shows it is nothing new A number of un ruly boys congregate nightly at the corner of Mill and Main the Free Press of admonishes citizens Previous attempts to control loitering have not been enforce able because bylaws contain loop holes It is often difficult to dis tinguish between who is loitering and who is simply spending a few minutes chatting downtown Judges are inclined to be lenient with offenders If it were simply a case of loiter ing merchants would not be upset but it has become a ritual for many young people to hang out on the streets and litter block pedes trians and discourage business There is also much vandalism Police and Chamber have to come up with a solution It is in cumbent on the police to provide protection for citizens as well as discourage loiterers It is done in other communities It can be done here There are areas for loitering They are not downtown Arena public facility A bid by Acton businessmen to take over the operation of Acton arena has been rejected by HUIs council Mayor Peter roy stated there is no way a public facility would be turned over to private enterprise The bid by local businessmen was prompted by a 30 per cent in crease in ice rental rates pro jected tor and since passed by council The men were also dubious about a deficit in arena operations last year Although the suggestion has merit what the businessmen are really saying is that the oper deficit of the arena was a costly and unnecessary ltion on the taxpayers They feel private enterprise could break even and perhaps make money at the old ice rates They are critical of the time the arena is shut down with no activity and the use of labor They believe they could run the operation more efficiently than the town That may be so but if previous ventures into arena operation are any indication then council is right and the are wrong Private ownership of town arenas m both Milton and George town failed miserably in the 1940s The former Town of Georgetown allowed private owners to take over the sole Georgetown arena in 1942 and 1943 and Councillor Walter reminds us they lost their shirts In Milton under a similar agree ment with Fred Armstrong an affluent businessman from that community it was also a money loser Efforts were made to bring in all kinds of attractions to draw crowds and patronage including big name wrestling but it wasnt long until the old Brown St arena was back in the towns hands The businessmen can point out the Georgetown experience was in the war years when many public operations were strapped for funds and in Miltons case there wasn the demand or the pop ulation to break even at that par ticular time However if they feel they can operate in these days of high demand for ice and arena space with larger populations then it is up to them to provide figures to prove it to the Town not vice versa If they can show a case with figures then perhaps council will turn a more sym pathetic ear to their suggestion Meanwhile the arena will conti nue to operate as a public facility But council is reminded tax payers are opposed to large in creases which they feel un necessary under a more efficient system than we have now Its up to the Town to improve the sys tern Smileys dept happy relaxed Every year when July rolls around I breathe a pretty heavy of relief Not because school over and there a long But I can teach with one head tied behind my back And I m not that wild about holidays No the reason for the relief is that have managed to wiggle my way through an other year of being a department head without having any deaths suicides or nervous breakdowns among my staff Being head of a large department in a large high school would seem to be a rather enviable position You are paid extra for It and usually teach one less class than the other teachers Those are tbe good aspects But there are others and they are not all a piece of cake I won bother moaning about the in cessant paper work the scrambling to stay within a meagre budget with cost of books soaring steadily the taking of in ventory of about ODD books Those are thedrudgejobs and everyone has some of this in his work It the personalities Involved that make the Job something less than a sinecure A department head must be a combination of Momma Machiavellf and Mr Hyde a priest Napoleon and a touch of a psychiatrist thing English teachers are a bit more creative articulate and rebellious than most of their contemporaries per haps because they continually deal with ideas not facts Ideas are shifty things and the conveying of them to students Is more slippery than the teaching of more pragmatic subjects science math geo graphy shops As a result the English department head must serve as a wailing wall for his teachers who loudly and sometimes tear fully vent their frustrations at their lnabil lty to impart their own skills to their students He must oil the joints of his department frequently when some of Its members seem about to come to blows with each other He must act as a buffer between them and the administration And he must stand up for them vigorously when someone is trying to shaft them Now I hope you are not expecting me to say that I do all these things A pat on the back here a word of praise there a shoulder to cry on long onetoone talks to restore their confidence a stern when necessary frequent department meetings where we talk things out Not atoll If I tried to do all those things I have been committed or had a heart attack long ago let them crack up or break down and try to show them with invincible calm my old theory that there b nothing absolutely nothing in this world to get excited about Itseemstoworkprettywell lam rather shy and don t get Involved in their personal lives except to listen once in a while If I cant avoid it When they are seriously ill I don bug them don t even go to see them We ve had three department members with serious heart trouble in the last three years They re all back on the job better than ever Probably because I left them alone t show any particular pathy and let them solve it themselves When a couple of members are at each other throat I tell them to sort it out themselves not come running to me for help We never think of having a meeting at which we let it all hang out We have the shortest department meetings in the school Most of them arc taken up with ribaldry a little business and a quick of a motion for adjournment We have quite an assortment Three working mothers One artist One student who has been taking extremely difficult courses for several years One poet One guy writing a novel One syndicated columnist Three of us arc former news paper people One lady teacher Is a dogged and determined member of the salary committee We have a devoted Catholic and a couple of agnostics We have a mixture of racial backgrounds Polish Scottish Irish Greek French Canadian and German Occasionally two members of the department need a good blast for mopery or gawk But 1 am psychologically unable to ream somebody out and the trouble usually goes away like bad weather Once in a while when I become a little depressed at the way they are draining me without knowing it I take out a booklet entitled Duties of a Department Head This gives me a good laugh when 1 realize that I am a lousy department head and I feel belter There is only one area in which I fulfil my function And this is a holdover from wartime A good officer always defends the men under him Unless of course they are hopelessly incompetent When some body climbs on the back of a member of my department the usually benevolent Bill Smiley heaths his claws and the attacker backs f Some departments have lenglhy meetings terrific Infighting resultant We have the happiest most relaxed department in the school Just want to say thanks guys for a good year And next fall don tell me your troubles Tell your husband or wife or mother or kids and we II have another great year How GO This may be my last report from Drive 1 could well drown in the catch basin which the town has obligingly scooped out of property in front of our front lawn turning our vista into their version of the water hazard on tinker golf course It is hard to believe passing motorists are stopping pedestrians looking into it and telling others in the subdivision who meander down to see a marvel of ineering obviously conceived by someone out to get me and the other half Ive been thinking of charging ad mission hanging a sign out with the words Coles Canyon embroidered on silk Perhaps I could get someone to organize pony rides down the slopes for the kids and my wife could sell lemonade Workmen made improvements on the hole Monday carefully sodding it so the green of their new sod made my lawn look like a World War I battlefield The neighbors are all glad it dldnt happen to them One man said Sue em Theyve devalued your properly Another said Migawd it b hard to believe we have such extraordinary engineering these days A colleague said Stick up a sign reception area Rot bis i socks Vile Im still confused Hartley Coles My tax bills are paid don t remember riling the mayor or members of council unduly The mayor came op to look when my neighbors arid I asked turn to tell us why they didnt finish the road as pro mised in a letter last year We got tar and chip and two catch basins were isolated up the road Ran out of money council said No grants available Since I also work out of Georgetown I noted a similar project there on Main St also was abort of the amount budgeted Did they stop work and save the No way went ahead Naturally tbe question arise going on here Are we second class or something Why couldnt they finish our road when they had no problem approving It in Georgetown As Christopher Columbus must have Mid when he sighted the new world See geography does matter Enough of my problems Theyre mini scute compared to those of the boat people marooned on the high seas be- Im reminded of tots by a recent family windows No Englishmen need apply cause of inhuman governments and reunion which took place in Kitchener They came anyway and tbe family has doddering bureaucrats Some people also rifleman Park for members of tbe grown and spread out all over North oppose bringing more people Into tbe Gibbons family Immigrants from America like many others in similar country although ancestors That was when straits Utah bad to be immigrants some Canadians had signs up la factory It seems Gibbons name was really Elizabeth Drive improvements editor a new hole Glbney when they lived in Ireland and for some reason had to be changed so they could move to England ahead of someone in pursuit In any event my grandfather on my mothers side took wife five kids and about 14 pounds to Canada landing in a village called near where lumbering was the big industry They slept In a barn the first night here and must have got some impressions of their adopted country The Gibbons raised 10 children and as I said earlier they are spread all over this continent and some went back to Britain after marrying airmen here on common wealth training Another brother the name spelled Gibbins also immigrated His family was there too Reunions are great One gets re lations you never knew existed Since this was a first effort an executive was named to have another next year and since most of the original family seemed reluctant to serve those who married into the family got the Jobs re trying to grow a family tree and have copies of the log book my grandfather wrote of his years under the sailing masts available for all who want them We arc already looking forward to next years event Digging for roots I guess J Back issues 10 years ago Taken from the of the Free Press of Wednesday July IM9 Fred Kcntner who retires from Beard- more after years service was presented with a gift by vicepresident Frank of Montreal Playground opened at the park Monday Director is Don Price with leaders Dolores Jordan and Jeff Cooper A mother of two Mrs Bar bara Brotherton competed in the powder puff derby air race The latest hair styling trends from London were shown to hair at a course at Style Acres Ranch Dr Anthony Kingscotc has returned home to Rockwood after completing a second United assignment to Southeast Asia and the Far East Churchill church welcomed Rev Fosbury to their congregation pledging the support of the whole congregation Bob Hyde is leaving after a year No end in sight is how P Rud Whiting described prospects for a summer recess on Parliament Hill Cons Doug is the newest officer on the Acton O P P detachment years ago Taken from tfcebaseof the Free Press Thursday Julys 1 Thirteen grade 13 students held their graduation dinner at the Frank Cooper Mary Jane Force Michael Homer David Hunter Michael Hurst Ruth Lands borough Shirley Mason Margaret Morrison Bruce MaePherson Dianne Newton Nancy Skippen Valenc Vnrey Marilyn Young William Johnson A presentation was made to their teacher Mrs D A Smith and two pointings were presented to the school Five Scouts received their Religion in Life awards troop leader Peter Newton assistant scout master Lawrence patrol leaders Bob Hinton and Ricky Currie John Lcathcriand George Ware and Brian Rev made the presentations at St s church A newly installed organ was dedicated Eden Milk United church The now from the tower of St Joseph church three times a day since the installation of a timing device which rings the bell automatically The Water s swimming program is back to life being taught by J II Buck land at Doug Mason dock Jack Coyle of Acton is Ontario Legion singles darts champion 50 years ago Taken from the Issue of the Free Press of Thursday July The results of the entrance examinations are announced this week and out of 20 made honors Every one of the pupils of Miss M Z Bennett was successful in passing Pupils of neighbouring schools also wrote their examinations at Acton Those with highest standing are Harvey Clara Bauer Catherine Macklc George and Near Others with Honors are Gordon Cook Amelia Evans Thos Gibbons Laura Hall Teddy Hansen Joseph Kelly Eileen Kowalski Basil Mellon Thomas Marguerite and Murray Smith Mr and Mrs Bert have moved to their new home on Frederick St The Starkman block at the corner of Mill and Main comprising Talbot s Hardware and the Empire Cafe has been improved by painting A large quota or Acton folk attended the garden party at Mr Richard Harris of took a trip to Toronto on his wheel on Saturday going down In less than four hours and returning in a little over five hours in the evening He visited friends In the vicinity of the umber River 100 years ago Taken from thelsaneotthe July School out till the leth August We feel that our village should be from vagrants who are constantly lounging about the streets during the day and committing depredations by night Again we are called upon to report the des truction of trees either by good- foroolhlng scoundrels or cows allowed to run loose on Bower Ave and other streets Doubtless some will claim a vested right in the pasturage of the streets and commons of the Village but this trifling advantage to a few to be allowed to stand in the way of having our Village beautified and Improved by the planting of trees Tbe Board of Trustees met in the school house and approved accounts Thos Moore salary for June Ml 17 Miss Miss Moore A number of unruly boys congregate nightly at the corner of Mill and Main The end of the Zulu war looks more distant than ever A large number of Orangemen visited Milton on 12th All was quiet in Mon treal Over were In the procession in Toronto