The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

The- Acton Free Press Wednesday Mar 12 1980 Acton Don McDonald Publisher Founded in Mil Sit The Brampton Ej EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT Editor Eric EL ADVERTISING DEPARTMENT Mimagai Bill r Advancing BUSINESSACCOUNTING OFFICE 01 Tl I Shrl CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT M TELEPHONE 5191 Business and Office Send in Citizen ballots By this time next week the Acton Citizen of the Year will be known This year the selection com mittee formed by the Acton Chamber of Commerce tried to abandon ballots but public apathy forced a return to this unsuitable way of nominating residents for this important award The committee written Citizen of the Year submissions would be more enlightening and valuable to them in their deliberations Their reasoning appears correct A thoroughly considered selection would be enhanced by a written submission since more reasons lor the persons nomination can be given a letter than in a single line on a ballot cut out of this newspaper However public apathy to wards this award as evidenced by the fact no written submissions were offered has forced the committee to revert back to ballots In light of the fact the Citizen of the Year award is the highest which can be bestowed on any resident of this community this apathy is deplorable It is definitely a community award too since citizens nomin ate the potential recipients Anyway its back to ballots again this year and residents have just tomorrow and Friday to send their nominations to the Acton Chamber of Commerce Post Office Box or drop them off at the Community Services Centre If you havent sent in a ballot sit down and give some thought to who you know has given a Jot of themselves to enrich life in Acton the past year Naming someone Citizen of the Year is a great way to thank someone who has made Acton a better place to live Applaud voter turnout Voters in riding includ ing Acton deserve a big round of The turnout of over 76 per cent of the eligible electorate in Halton was phenomenal especially con sidering the fact it was the second federal election weve had to en dure in less than a year and most of the issues were rehashes of last spring High voter interest evidenced by cast ballots is a tribute to not just the candidates but the hundreds of workers who helped make the election interesting enough to the electors of Memories of Ireand Catherine Graham of I writes an article for St Patrick Day March annually for this This year she us something of her birthplace id ha of Ireland CO DOWN by Catherine Graham I have never written anything about where I was bom a rather picturesque place As a rule one never forgets the place of iheir birth re Bardies of the country was named by the clan who went there in the century from Co The place they left was called Cremourne so they con erred the name on their new surroundings Is the market town In my young days we used to help Father bring his cattle there to the fairs held monthly We always looked forward to ihis as you could have bought anything from a needle to an anchor at the stalls there Those days are gone All cattle go now by truck up to A lot of were fishermen especially Ihose thai lived near Die coast I still see the clustered lights of the little skiffs out on the water at night Many of course were Thai meant they made Iheir living cutting and dressing the blue granite in the Mis You find many good stone houses there I was born and lived in one also headstones and stone ditches many of the tunes old Potatoes are the main crop many the day gathered the spuds They are exported as far away as Africa A visit to would not be complete without going to sec The Silent Valley Here you see a magnificent engineering feat amidst quiet and majestic beauty Here was built the reservoir in the that supplies the city of Bel fast with waler Percy French the Irish poet visited often and wrote a poem about it I shall include a verse The Mountains of by Percy trench O Mary this London is a wonderful sight Where people are working both day and They don t grow potatoes or barley or wheat But there is gangs of them digging for gold on the street At least when I asked them that what I was told So I just look a hunt in the digging for gold But all I found there sure I might as well be Where the Mountains of Moume Sweep down lo the sea A monument was put up some years ago Newcastle near the Mournes to Percy French He lived in last century We hear very little about poetry these days In years gone by it was certainly very much part of our lives not only in school but at home and at work When helping our parents on the farm they were always reciting poetry This had a twofold advantage in that was entertaining and helped keep us on the job The classical poems arc beautiful lo read Of course they always rhymed but modern poetry while quite interesting does not rhyme It however is still classed as poetry Sad to say radio and television has more or less taken over today and this affluent age has in the long run robbed us of a richness we didnt even realize was there poetry With St Patrick Day coming up I want to speak about a poem my father often recited The Bell3 of Shan don It was written by Francis who wrote under the pen name of Father He was born In Cork In 1804 and was educated in re land Francis studied for the Priesthood but did not finish hence the name Father Prout He took up a literary career In London and became a correspondent for The Globe in Pons remaining thereuntil his death in 1066 Here is the first verse of The Bells of Shandon Wilh deep affection and recollection I often think of the Bells Whose sounds so wild would in day of childhood Fling round my cradle their magic spells On this I ponder where eer I wander And thus grow fonder Sweet Cork of thee With the Bells of Shandon That Sound so grand on The pleasant waters of the ilver Lee The beloved bells still ring out over that lovely city by the Lee just as they did in Francis Ma honeys days Tribute to Emerald Isle note Elizabeth sent along the following poem In celebration of Ireland and St Patricks Day which Is this Monday March 17 The Legend of the Isle Once upon a time God looked down from Heaven and decided the earth was too drab and cheerless That it needed more beauty and gaiety and laughter So He created an Isle in the midst of a lovely sea He took the green of an Emerald and painted the Irccs The green of an apple and made the crass light and lovely ana green precious jade and coloured the hills and valleys And He chose a special ray of sunlight lo shine on this Isle and selected the miest breezes to blow there Then He decided that such a beautiful Piece of green earth should belong only to the most special kind of people So He gathered together the music of a birds song The soul and heart of a poet the twinkle in the star sheen and the laughter of angels And blended them together Into a group of wonderful people He called Ihe Irish And He named their dwelling place Emerald Isle IT SAYS PLEASE DO NOT FEED THE DUCKIES Trouble is travel is wasted on kids Sometimes I am convinced I was born years loo soon When I see wonderful opportunities for travel young people have today I turn pea green wilh envy When you and I were young most of us didnt gel much farther than the next town A minority visited the city occasionally and it was considered a big deal A whole lot of people never did get to see a big city in their entire lives And were no worse off font of course Man how has changed Nowadays young people go galloping off to Ihe four corners of the earth with no more thought about it we have given to a in the city They re so blase about it that it s sickening to old guy like me who has always yearned to travel and never had the time or money or freedom lo do it In my day during the Depression the only people who could afford to travel were Ihe hoboes They could afford it because Ihey have any money They rode free on the tops and inside the boxcars of freight rains And Ihey didn I have any responsibilities except the next meal and a place to sleep Looking back 1 was one of Ihe lucky ones Most of my generation of youth were forced by circumstances to stay home get any job available and hang on to it like grim death never venturing forth on the highroads of life I was ihe envy of my classmates when 17 I nabbed a job on the upper lake boats and could come home bragging of having been to such bizarre exotic places as Sic Mane Detroit Todays youngsters would sneer at such bourgeois travels They exchange anec dotes about Morocco and Moscow Athens and Australia Paris and Port Prince Delhi and Dubrovnlk Fair nauseates me it does By the lime he was my own son had lived on both coasts of Canada been lo Mexico New Orleans Texas Israel Ire land a hundred other places that arc just names in an atlas to me Hes been to Paraguay South America and has visited Argentina and Bolivia He speaks four languages My nephews have seen more countries lhan Chris Columbus or Sir Francis Drake One an airline pilot and knows Europe North America and West Indies the way I know my way lo school Another has worked in the Canadian north Quebec the Congo Jamaica My nieces are just as peripatetic They ve been to the West Coast France England Russia A four day trip to New York for them is scarcely worth men Honing Mlgawd Id have given my left eyeball to see New York when I was their age I thought it was pretty the first time I saw Toronto Toronto Thousands of university students an take a year off borrow some money stuff a packsack and head out for a year of bumming around Europe Mediterranean North Africa India llotten kids In the last decade the bug has spilled over Into the high schools Some of them are beginning to sound like agencies with frequent announcements over ihe A Will the group going to in the winter break please assemble in Room at for a lesson in lying your All those taking the Venezuela trip are requested to see Mr Vagabond in room is today Those who are involved in the spring break trip to the Canary Islands should have Iheir passports by March 1st An urgent meeting will be held for those who plan to take the London- Paris trip during spring break All seats arc now filled If enough ore interested we hire another plane It fairly makes your head swim especially when your own idea of a trip south is 100 miles lo the city for a weekend a trip west means a visit lo great grandad and a trip east means you re going to a funeral or a wedding among the relatives The next thing you know this binge will bulge over into the elementary and great loads of little shavers from Grade Eight will be on the unsuspecting residents of Hong Kong and Rio dc Janeiro Lord help Ihem The residents not Ihe kids Perhaps this sounds like sour grapes Well it is AsShawsaid The trouble with youth is that it is wasted on the young And as Smiley says The trouble with it is wasled on kids who don know a Grecian urn from an Italian pizza Oh it not that I havent travelled I ve been to Great Britain And spent two years staggering around in the blackout or wading through the torrential rams of Scotland I ve been to France Slept five in a tent in an orchard in Nor mandy Been to Belgium Antwerp buzz bombs Know Holland well Spent two weeks locked in a boxcar in a railway siding at Am intimately ac quainted with Germany Was bombed in we i and Leipzig and spent a delightful six months in salubrious as a guest of Third Reich Oh I ve been around all right But some how wasn quite the same Rattling through Deulschland on a train with a 10- day stubble of beard on your chin and a of some black bread stuffed into your battledress blouse is not quite similar to aboard a with your bag and waiting for the stewardess lo bring your first meal Would I trade Not on your life by Gord Murray I received an Interesting call from an farmer Id like to share with you readers This gentleman was most concerned what he considered a lack of Hills council news in the pages of the Acton Free Press the past few months He thought we I putting in as much council news as we have in the past I assured him and I assure you council news pertaining to Acton and Is being reported The problem is council has been a little quieter than usual past couple or months Not as many items have been coming up at council general committee and plan board Meetings running nearly as lale as normal A week ago Monday council adjourned after Just minutes I cant remember In my five years covering council a shorter meeting Presumably once the budget Is struck things will liven up at Hills council and we be bringing you more news regarding what is being done with your tax dollars I like many voters wondered during the recent federal election what happened to the Liberal platform the parly brass and caucus hammered out during the Christ mas break Following the naming of the new cabinet I developed something of a theory What I suspect happened is that once the platform was developed the Liberals hud heard enough of Ihc New campaign to realise the two parties shared many of same ideas The Grits couldnt very well say the same Ihi so Ihey said llltle For Instance Marc is the only Liberal I heard calling before Ihc vole for natural gas exports to the United States to be terminated That was an NDP plank Now Lalonde is the energy minister gas exports could well end Ed repeatedly called for Canada lo gel control of its own economy by developing the manufacturing sector and not continue exporting our resources for processing elsewhere Clearly a platform of economic nationalism So who is Canada new Industry Trade and Commerce minister Herb Gray thats who a man who lias been advocating economic nationalism for some lime The new finance minister Allan is expected to move the notions economic policy away from the right where Pierre moved it In 1977 and Joe Clark kept It In will be cither a middle of the road or possibly left leaning finance minister If restraint was going to be a big priority wilh the Libcrol government then why did Trudeau appoint such an inexperienced albeit highly qualified man as Donald Johnson President of Ihe Treasury Board The NDP said restraint in these economic times wasnt Ihe top prior Likely it wont be with government cither The veterans will chew Johnson to bits Id bet Likely more examples of Liberal policy being similar to NDP platform planks will materialise in the weeks and months ahead Back issues 10 years ago Taken from lie Issue of the Acton Press March IB Acton mayor Lcs Duby has told a dis traughl McKeough that he was very disappointed in his decision to defer regional government in and Peel until there was more concensus to change the present system He could see no benefit in the stall Sue the Robert Little operetta is all set lo go Becky Baxter and Jim Krapek headline the Thursday cast and Debbie and Billy the Wednesday cast New changes in the Catholic liturgy will be introduced at St Joseph this Sunday English will be used exclusively there will be three readings from Scripture one more lhan now as well as changes In the rites Father Morgan has been instructing parishioners in the new liturgy Alex Mann was honored for his long service to Knox church He was presented with a reclining chair He was an elder for years and clerk of session for years township council opposes a hydro line across the township A 155lot subdivision at was approved south and west of the township Mr and Mrs Max Milne of celebrated their anniversary 20 years ago Taken from the Issue of Ihc Acton Free Press Thursday March 10 1960 Nearly 700 braved the near zero weather al the arena to view the program presented by the Gait Figure Skating club during the annual Minor Sports Booster Night Herb Cook and Bob in comic outfits at tempted to repeat the feats of the Gait skaters There was a Squirts hockey game Acton Citizens Band and the Pipe Band played Mr Mrs Howard Masalcs celebrated GO years of married life There will be dial telephones in Acton by A surprise presentation was made to Ted Hansen who has completed 17 years as organist of the church His predecessor Fred Salt who was organist longest resigned after 17 years so Mr Hansen is beginning to set a new record The Duke of Devonshire chapter held their officers tea with teachers as guests the home of Mrs The newly formed Rogers enjoyed an outing with their lender Ron Smith to his property in Nassagawcya Sweaters were presented by Y board members to the group leaders assisting secretary Sid Chris Norfolk Vic Roach Frank Cooper Ruddy Holmes Fred Dawkins Pete Hurst John Creighton Bob Foyers Jr Bud Evans was chosen chairman of the planning board with Joe vice chairman 50 years ago Taken from the Issue of Ihe tree Press Thursday March 13 1030 The annual Worlds Day of Prayer meeting held in Ihe United church day afternoon was well attended Mrs H Moore Miss Maggie Mrs A T Brown Mrs Rev Sawyer Mrs William Thompson and Mrs Malcolm McLean look pari For Ihe third time since the Installation of the fire alarm siren several years ago a false alarm of fire was sent in to Chief Donald The party stated the fire was at the Acton Tanning Company The suspected party was rounded up and lodged In the cells He pleaded guilty the next day and was fined and costs Bcardmorc have applied for additional horsepower for their plant and hydro has agreed It was the privilege of another one of Actons venerable couples to celebrate their golden wedding Mr and Mrs Joseph Holmes at their home on Bower Ave Mr Holmes is the only sur viving son of a family of ten Mrs Holmes the only surviving daughter of a family of nine They moved to Acton years ago Emma Robinson was elected regent of Lakeside chapter of the I O D E and Mrs R P Watson first vice regent 100 years ago Token from the Issue or Acton tree Press Thursday March II 1HH0 About a week ago Messrs Bros of Stratford came to town In search of ice for packing and shipment They examined Morrows pond and finding it to be of superior quality and good thickness pur chased all the ice and immediately em ployed men and teams to harvest it About 100 cords were teamed to one of Bennetts hotel sheds and packed in sawdust cords to a building near the depot and an ice house 140 feet long feet wide and 12 feet high has been built on the shore of the poi