The Acton Free Pfosa Wednesday Aug 3Vrtm press Don McDonald Publisher Wednesday In and Co I J Sub J mole The Acton hi is one of tho Inland Co led news piper which include The by Picks News titer The dan The Pott Gazette Tha Georgetown Independent Ma Sun The Milton Canadian Champion The New The Ntwnu Eia OshavtS This Week This Weekend and The T Advertising accepted on the condition that in the typographical error that the dvertmng space occupied by the erroneous tern together with allowance for not bo gedfotbut the balance of tax or at the applicable ale In event of a typographical advertising goods or services at a w price goods or may not be is merer an offer andmavbew Second clan mail Registration Number EDITORIAL DEPARTMtNT Editor Hartley Cotes News Editor Helen Murray EncBaitme porta Editor Robin ADVERTISING DEPARTMENT Advertising Manager Dm Cook Clf Advertising- Maryhn BUSINESSACCOUNTING OFFICE Officer Manager Fran Gibson Stutloy Jocque Artem CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT Manager McAnh TELEPHONE Business and Editorial Office Gary Dawkins Death is always with us It is part of life but Acton to have been struck with what we may term many untimely deaths this year Latest was the loss of Gary a young man who at years of age just seemed to be starting a talented career in education community service and politics Principal of the McKenzie- Smith middle school he had a fine record education had been in the political arena participated in worthwhile projects in town and area and was involved in many organizations dedicated to service above self The family of Gary asked former Robert Little school Garnet Pat to give the eulogy at the funeral last week Mr McKenzie had known Gary personally all his life and we think his words help sup ply some of the answers to the riddle of life and death which plague all of us It is in that spirit and one of mourning for a leading son of this community that we print Mr eulogy in full Often it seems to many or us as we make our Journey through life that God is not merely stern but also hard and unjust We cannot see behind the sternness and the severity which are designed to keep up our courage our perseverance and our determination and see the gentle lender heart of God filled with pity God said Come unto me all ye that labour and who are heavy laden and I will give you rest A very positive statement which every human being needs to hear It offers the gift of peace and the gift of res As we mourn of a loved one God draws near and abides with when all else fails No doubt Rosa lee Mark and Michael are asking Will we see our loved one again Everyone here has known the deep sorrow of this question To all who grieve Jesus has given this promise Because I live ye shall live also To all who believe death does not end it all Yes you shall see your loved one again I hove known Gary personally oil his life I watched him mature and clop as a student graduate from and become in a few short years one of the most respected and dedicated the Region of Hal ton His per integrity and his unselfish service for others is wellknown Through the Rotary Club the Canadian Legion the Masonic Lodge the Board of Managers of Knox Presbyterian Church as well as his many activities a teacher and a school principal Gary baa served faithfully He loved people To his loved ones who have lost a devoted husband a loving father a caring son and an understanding brother it Is my belief that each one of us are placed on earth for a purpose with tasks to perform and when we have completed our work God calls us home Gary has had In his few short years many major accomplish HU last one was to take the old high school In town and transform it prog middle school I know that be was very proud of this accomplishment I attended many activities in his school and their graduation exercises last June at the Canadian Legion I was most impressed with the maturity of the young people that were graduating Let me read to you one students perception of his principal I think of Mr as a man who always knew what to do and had complete control of everything At the same time he always had time to speak or smite at the students wherever he saw them He was a wonderful person His staff knew that Gory was a person quick to praise where due and equally alert to denounce unsuitable or inap propriate attitudes or behaviour His staff and viceprincipal commented as follows When I think of Gary Dawkin3 I remember a man possessed of numerous positive attitudes However the most extraordinary of these were his kindness sensitivity and understanding He was a man who exhibited great respect for both the personal and professional worth of colleagues Gary was highly respected by all his fellow principals and one of them says has lost a trusted and respected colleague In the passing of Gary Dawkins He was a leader and his record was ex tensive He established an educational environment based on the premise that Kids count His record stands as a source of pride to his family and as an inspiration to those who worked with him In Education and his community has been well served by Gary When I contacted the administrative staff of the Halton Board of I heard these comments Gary Dawkins was very very reliable his was the voice of reason He was highly respected by his staff Gary was a people person wilhexc ellent relations with his students We always enjoyed excellent cooperation from him An active member of the Masonic lodge in Acton commented Gary served well pressed as he was with other duties he still discharged with distinction the chain of offices that lead to the Masters chair Here in particular he displayed the qua itlesofagoodman a good employer good Instructor No finer tribute can be said for Gary than that among the many who knock and are admitted none would have excelled htm as a craftsman in our noble arts and sciences A fellow Rotarlan feels that the Rotary Club of Acton has lost a most valuable member Since his Induction in he has served on most committees as a director and has been president on two occasions Gary was very proud of yrs of perfect attendance He served Above Self which is Ihe motto of Rotary Gary joined Knox Church in and since that time he has served two terms on the board of managers he has ushered and Just rec took part In the town survey In Knox Second Century Advance for Christ Gary also found the to be active In the Canadian Legion He has served on the executive as public relations officer He was Involved in the joint Legion Rotary dinner for Citizens in Acton He found time to be involved in Provincial pouITcs and ran as the PC candidate for the Burlington riding in 1975 Just Gary was appointed to serve on the Georgetown District Hospital Board When you sacrifice yourself as Gary Dawkins did In unselfish service for others you leave a little bit of your heart and soul in your community This residue which Gary has left behind by his unselfish service for others will cement It together and give it character Although we mourn his passing we should be very proud of hl3 accomplishments and willing to follow in his footsteps The sympathy of everyone gathered here today Is extended to Mark Michael and all the Dawkins family who have lost their loved one and I urge them to hold fast to the promise of Jesus when he said I am with you always These are the dog However here one pussy cat who Investigation Nlckl is Sandra Inscoe pet Puss ate most of the cool covered a creamy way of cooling The cone left a bad taste in the goodie and another Inscoe pet a dog named Piper finished oft he mouth of Free Press porta editor Robin Inscoe so he set It aside No treat sooner was the cone on the sidewalk than Nlckl was undertaking an torn Have you seen where Hills has decided all garbage collections from Acton residential properties will now be handled on Wednesdays Good gosh what ever has happened to tradition In my end of town garbage has been collected on Mondays since time immemorial Shifting the date to Wednes days means my Mondays are going to be all screwed up Starting out the week with out putting out the garbage is like going out without clothes know Monday comes after the week end If it has been a remarkably tiring weekend or an ordinary one I know the garbage goes out the next day Something clicks up there and I am out on the street sometimes before Sam the crack of dawn for newspaper people used to toiling nights But Wednesdays What am 1 going to do to remember to put out the garbage on Wednesdays Tradition has been shattered My sched ule has gone haywire My life is ruined as they nay In the soaps I bellyached to friend No sympathy Just remember he said Wednesday comes after Tuesday and you be home free But know Wednesday comes after Tuesday It is remembering to put the garbage out on Wednesday instead of Mon day that is putting my timing gear out 1 afraid Mr Garbage Man you are going to get some awful stale garbage from our end of town until the new moral ity penetrates my thick skull I sure keep putting out our gar bage on Monday and by Wednesday there won I be anything worth saving if this heat stays around Darn regional government anyway The phone rang It was a man about a dog This particular gentleman was being bothered by a barking dog He works nights driving After a long night and part of a day at the wheel he usually crawls between the sheets around 3pm in the afternoon That when the dog started to bark It ruined his sleep It ruined his disposition It ruined his day lie finally picked up the phone and dialed The Free Press hoping someone here could help him He got a sympathetic ear here There nothing worse than a barking dog to interrupt someone trying to deep He is right The neighbors should see to Back issues years ago Taken from the Issue the Free Press of Wednesday Augusts 1969 Nossagaweya township reeve WAN died of a heart attack while vacation ing at Digby N S He had served seven months of his two year term The wreck em boys sure put on a good show at speedway with Bigger the big winner An old landmark known as the Beacon Light was lost when the brick house on the Fourth Line mysteriously burned to the ground on Sunday morning The funeral of Smith Griffin on Satur day at Churchill Community Church was the largest gathering ever known in the church Two teachers at Robert Little school Richard and Undo were married in St Joseph church A meeting of cabinet ministers and about municipal representatives at the Riviera club was mostly a rehash of pre vious meetings on regional government but it obvious the deadline has been slowed down The has not been con to talking about regional govern Municipal Affairs minister Darcy admitted ill Mm m m m admitted Wall writing but nobody s looking I years ago It a little like being an observer of the Fall of the Roman Empire That s how I feel as I read and hear the latest energy crisis news of these days In the not distant future the last drop of that black stuff is going to drip into the last receptacle How then brown hen Will we freeze in the dark Well a heck of a lot of Canadians will need every bit of that red blood to avoid doing It not as though the handwriting has not been an wall It just that nobody has been looking at hat particular wall We vc all been looking out our picture window instead I ve been thinking about it during a particularly busy week in which a dentist saved one of my ancient teeth a doctor gave me an allergy shot and a barber removed some of my ancient white hair Needless to say I drove my ancient car to each of these places None of them Is more than a ten minute walk On my way to one of them I drove down to the dock parked and watched about boats trying to wiggle their way out of marinas so that they could open her up and cut a swatch across the lake with their oil burners At the doctors people were complaining because the airconditioning working The dentist used a high speed electric drill in his office with all the fluorescent lights on The barber was sweating turned up his air conditioning washed his hands in hot water and switched on his electric clip pers By George I though It going to be quite a change I visualized the dentist pumping away with his old foot powered drill The doctor giving me a shot by flash light because there are no windows in the Joint The barber using the old hand powered clippers and shaving my neck with cold water in a steamy hot barber shop It wouldn bother me too much I was brought up on wood stoves coal oil lamps block of Ice in the refrigerator and a coal trnlng furnace Bui sure would bother the doctor the dentist and Ihe barber along wilh tically every human being in North America under the age of It going to be quite an auction sale I thought when that last drop of black stuff flows from the last spigot Listen to the auctioneer Lincoln Continental 1982 model like new Tear out and have a grand out door ret room or the kiddies What am I bid Do I hear Here a real steal A fool cruiser built In cupboards septic toilet sleeps six Get a teamster to tow it into your back yard and you have a dandy cabin for guests Will somebody the bidding wilh And here another beauty Three 1380 worth the day they were bought Cut the tops off remove the wheels and they moke beautiful flower beds Not ten dollars apiece not even nine dollars each but the three for And here today super special She s only years old and guaranteed to work day or not like those electric things that were always breaking down An almost automatic dishwasher Yes ladles and the real thing This little ladycameonhardttmes Her husband had a heating oil franchise She willing to wash your dishes like never been washed before Only a week And so on Snowmobiles aircraft It going to be a great day tor the junk dealers On the other hand Uteres the bright side Just as people today pay fabulous sums for junk furniture dug out of attics the good folk of A D might go as high as for on ancient beautifully finished Cadillac or a tine specimen of Tour burner electric stove with infra red oven They make nice conversation pieces Away back there I failed to continue the analogy to the Roman Empire But it s Iherc They had their bread and circuses as the countdown approached Our arenas like theirs are packed solid wilh sweaty sadistic spectators watching the glad We don t have enough Christians to Ihrow to the lions But we can always fire the coach which is almost as And we have something the Romans We have an almost Instant view of disasters all over the world So I guess man kind has made one giant step back in the past 1500 years It looks as thought the handIn hand waltz of the oil companies and the car manufacturers which has lasted nearly a half a is going to become Good Night Ladies But the merry Walpurgisnacht of the western world continues its mad whirl as oil companies and airlines and car manu facturers and boat makers furiously ad their wares And the rest of us just as wildly rush out to buy them Ofcourse Idontmeanawordofallthis Somehow the human spirit though at one of Its lowest points in centuries will sur vivc and prevail Wc II find something But in the meantime I m going to sharpen my axe and get busy Installing a windmill See you in the bush lot By Hartley Coles it their dog does not stay outside and bark Just out of courtesy to neighbors As he says I hale to bother the neigh bors with my complaints It causes fric tion But I can sleep If you ve got a barking dog bring it in It could be the one bothering this driver If there anything a driver needs it is sleep Lome phoned the other day to note that the amateur gardener column published in The Kitchener Record had an item about Vera and Jim Inglis He was kind enough to faring it so I could peruse it Sure enough Bob Hoops the gardener was to learn that his mother was right There was such a thing as a plant with low that opened before one very eyes at night She found somebody who would give turn one of those plants and it turned out to be Mr and Mrs Inglis of Acton The whole idea of a Rower opening while you watch was more than my brain could absorb The only time I ever saw it happen was in Walt Disney Living Desert I can still see the cactus and other desert flowers opening after a rain But that was controlled by human tech nology a speeding of the film I of course jumped at the chance to get one In fact I even made a special trip lo Acton kilometres down the road That in itself was a trip lo remember thunder lightning and wind Now I not a superstitious person but I thought more than once that someone time we armed the rain had stopped The magic plants looking like a bunch were growing in a flower bed beside the back door at the home of Mr and Mrs Jim They were loaded with buds on long stems although none appeared to be ready to open Mrs Inglis had always heard plants called eight clocks and her husband said called them evening primroses was a fascinaUng challenge for me trying to find some reference or clue in my files or gardening books They listed under eight clocks and the pictures and descriptions 1 had Evening primroses didn t look like the plants given to me When I arrived home I placed the bas kets in a protected area of the garden since t v as pouring as as dark But I set the alarm for a m the following day There was I alt alone at the crack of dawn plant ing the primroses as well as some coral bells and flowering kale that the Inglis s had given me At first the primroses t do any thing A couple of them up buds but never opened Then all of a sudden they seemed to take hold and each plant produced a large number of buds But once Ihe buds on our plants began to fatten we watched them carefully And sure enough in a period of five minutes one evening we watched as the bud case split and the large pale yellow flowers un folded By midmorning of the following day they were dead Ours bloom between and 9pm I ve decided they re definitely prim roses So Mr and Mrs Inglis made one am a teur gardener ecstatically happy I wonder how many other unique plants they have in their garden To those renders who have called and expressed either sympathy or empathy or made obscene remarks about the Coles new swimming pool I send my warmest regards It is still there the biggest catch basin in Acton and an eyesore Taken from the Issue of the Press JulvlO 1959 Beginning August 1 Acton residents de siring the use of on ambulance will no longer have the community owned vehicle available but will use the service provided by the Royal City Ambulance Guclph It was decided the cost or operating the town owned ambulance was prohibitive The diving pier at Fairy Lake swimming area a gift to the town from the Men several years ago is doomed to disappear as the Parks Board has deemed it danger Swimming Instructor Jim Buckland advised the board some persons were ing the purpose of the dock Council approved the increose in taxi fares from cents to per call Out only 11 hardworking young completed the St John Ambulance junior first aid course Ann Vale Christine Lynne Vale Jean Pat Jopn Ramsden Matthew Russell Jill Morton David grave Sandra Margrave and Robert Watson Barry Stewart has enlisted in the Navy Ledgers on open air bingo which attracted a big crowd 50 years ago Taken from issue of Ihe Free of Thursday August I 1929 At the bowling tournament at two Acton bowlers carried first prize in mixed doubles Mrs Lindsay received a china tea set and Mrs It Harrison a reading lamp Misses Dorothy MacPherson Catharine 11 Marguerite Grace Ski ling Mary Chalmers Law son Margaret Brown and Marjorie Hall members of theSunday School class of Mrs Rev A Stewart arc holidaying at the summer cottage of Rev and Mrs Stewart Bruce Beach Kincardine The matter of engaging a principal for Acton Continuation School was finally settled The school board has engaged Mr L Lawrence of Fleshcrton at a salary of a year A combined Acton Tanning Co and Beardmorc Co ball team stepped into town team and slugged Bill Nnun offer all over the park Red Greer and Bill Woterhouse were the heroes of the game A chicken dinner is at stake in the scries A number from attended the garden parly at the Ontario Reformatory sponsored by the Women s Institute park Is being well patronized this summer People have been appearing In summer scan ties during the past dog days 100 years ago Taken from the Issue or the Free Press July 1879 We notice that Messrs Adams of Acton and William of the line have received new threshing machines from Stratford The workman ship is well done and the machines have a good reputation The first threshing and the first threshing machine accident took place at Mr Ran Adams barn in this village on Monday morning last The horses had Just ben attached to the power and Mr John was leading his horses as they were not accustomed to the work when he accidentally got his right hand caught caught between the chain of the equalizer and the pulley thereby bruising badly three of the fingers one of which was almost torn The wound was dressed and the patient is progressing favorably Advertisement Economy is no disgrace It is better lo wear a cool low shoe in haying and harvest than to waste money by wearing long warm boots in the hot weather A new lot of men Plow Shoes and is just to hand at Christie Henderson and Co Acton An Italian with the usual hand organ and monkey arrived in our town Saturday morning and was followed by a crowd of girls and boys