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2 The Canadian Statesman, Bowmanville, Wednesday, October 5,1994 Section Two l|( Catta&tan statesman Former Publishers • Rev. W. R. Climie, 1854 -1878 • M. A. James, 1878 -1935 • George W. James, 1935 -1957 Produced weekly by James Publishing Company Limited P.O. Box 190,62 King St. W., Bowmanville, Ontario L1C 3K9 905-623-3303 Fax 905-623-6161 For 140 Years, Our First Concern Has Been Our Community Publisher - John M. James Assoc. Publisher -- Richard A. James Plant Manager - Donald J. Bishop Ad. Manager - Brian G . Purdy Editor - Peter Parrott Production Rick Patterson, Laurens Kaldeway, Doug Lugtenburg, Sharon McMullen, Barb Patterson, Ralph Rozema, Jim Snoek, Vance Sutherland, Jim Tuuramo Advertising Editorial Laverne Morrison Brad Kelly, Lorraine Manfredo, Laura J. Richards Office Angela Luscher, Junia Hodge, Grace McGregor, Nancy Pleasance-Sturman, Marilyn Rutherford Things Aren't the Way They Used to be... And Probably Never Were! Some people see the past as being an idyllic time when the sun shone more brightly and both people and products were made of better materials. On the other hand, Henry Ford once declared that "history is bunk!" Having spent the last few days compiling the 200th anniversary supplement which appears in this week's edition of The Statesman, we might be qualified to offer our thoughts about life in the Bowmanville/Darlington area today and life as it was a century ago. We would suggest that Mr. Ford is dead wrong. But so are those who might elevate the past to some kind of pedestal. There's is an old saying, to the effect that "Things aren't the way they used to be and probably never were." You can count us among those who like the idea of running water and indoor plumbing. We prefer to get our milk from a grocery store than to chase our cow through the neighbourhood every evening at milking time. We wouldn't even want to think about what it might have been like to take sick in the days before antibiotics, anesthetic or even hospitals. And yet, the community which was thriving here in the last half of the 1800s and the first half of this century is not without its attractions. And the reason lies in the word "community." Bowmanville, Darlington or whatever local village you called home was truly a place where citizens lived, worked and played. Our ancestors did not have the option of snatching a week's vacation in the Caribbean, shopping in the next county, working in Toronto, and taking a weekend jaunt to visit relatives 100 miles away. They did not have the option of watching TV programs produced in Los Angeles on a television set manufactured in Japan. If a war or a plague occurred the other side of the world, they might hear about it in a few years, not a few minutes. When you knocked on the door of a log cabin, you didn't get a recorded message. When you called at a business, you met a human being and not an electronic switchboard saying: "If you know the first three letters of the last name of the person to whom you wish to speak...." To the pioneers, highways moved wagons, horses, people, and livestock. Not information. In other words, communities of yesteryear were integrated in ways which today's citizens can never know. Chances are that if you lived here, you ate locally-grown food, off a table made at a local cabinetry shop, maybe even on plates manufactured at the local pottery. Your church, your school, your place of employment, and your baseball field or hockey rink were all within walking distance. It is interesting to note that, after 200 years of alleged progress, some elected officials, municipal planners and citizens are talking about how important it is to have communities in which people are able to live and work and enjoy their leisure hours. There's even talk about less emphasis on the all-powerful automobile and more emphasis on designing communities so that people can get around on foot or on bicycles. Who knows, we may eventually see a return of the house cow as a source of milk? It seems to us that communities need to have some knowledge of our history for the same reason that individuals need their memory. Memory is, for a civilization or a community what history is to the individual. Some of our memories are enjoyable and some of them aren't But, if we're wise, we can use these memories as a source of knowledge and inspiration to help shape our future. For much of the past 200 years, there has been a belief in "progress" which has clouded our thinking by assuming that everything in the future would be better and everything in the past was old-fashioned and useless. It is this attitude which caused historic buildings to be demolished and acres of farmland to be paved over. It's understandable that people are wondering if things weren't better in the old days. We would suggest that the challenge of the next 200 years will be to integrate the best of both the traditional and the modem. And, to do that, it's necessary to have some idea of the past. One of the mistakes we may have made in the past 200 years is that we have built upon our technical achievements but not so much upon our values and traditions. Fortunately, human history is open-ended. There will be time for ourselves and our descendants to make amends. And, as for the question of what life will be like in the next 200 years, who knows? We would dare to hope that it will be a life in which we can travel the world on the computerized information highway, but still walk to our neighbourhood park, store, church or school on a street built by a pioneer. We Asked... Do you think Canada should send troops to Haiti? .. .And You Said Ross Cameron Courtice "No. The United States knows what they are doing. They take over everywhere everywhere else. They like to get involved in everybody's business." business." Dan Sallows Bowmanville "No. I don't think Canada should get involved. We've got enough problems in our own country." Marie Dunlop Bowmanville "No, absolutely not. I don't think there's cause right now. Sure, we feel sorry for the people there, but there are problems at home that should be solved first." Richard Johnston Bowmanville "I'd like to see the situation resolved and UN troops are the only people who can keep them apart. Canadian troops have been involved all over the world; they might as well be in Haiti/' Next week's question: Do you think a curlew for teens would help prevent vandalism?