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together and agreed to ban automobiles completely for' one day. Some cities, like Verona and Siena, have said to hell with it, and banned cars entirely. In Paris a few months ago, more than two dozen government ministers showed up for a cabinet meeting meeting riding bicycles and electric electric scooters Even Ottawa has made noises about kicking some monêy back into our national Via Rail passenger service which it's been quietly strangling for decades. All of which makes our grousing and mewling about the price of gasoline faintly silly. Seventy-five cents a liter for gas got you down? That wdrks out to what -- $2:50. a gallon? Well, heads up, chum.' You're also paying over five bucks a gallon for homogenzed milk; eight bucks a gallon for orange juice and twenty-five bucks a gallon for Evian water. Maple syrup will set you back more than fifty bucks a gallon if you can find it at that price. And you don't even need a driver's licence. \ottxson's Hai-twJ Main Street, Orono * (7 The grand finale for Clarington Soccer Fields. The animals at th Leigh Donovon of Courtice was The anticipated crowds did not spectacular. 's Millennium event was held on Victoria Day at the Darlington e Ken-Jen Petting Zoo were eating whatever eleven-year -old offering. materialize for the final event, though the fireworks display was BASIC BLACK ARTHUR BLACK RUNNING ON EMPTY Well, how about it - is the spiralling cost of gasoline driving you squirrelly? Are you about ready to take that high octane gasoline nozzle and stick it where the sun doesn't shine? Elere's a heretical heretical thought for you: we aren't paying enough at the pumps. It's not my argument. It comes from the lips of William E. Rees, an economist economist and a professor at the University of British Columbia. And I'm not sure he's wrong. What the professor' has done is add up the hidden _ costs of each liter of gas we buy when we fill 'er up. The health costs, for instance, of all that pollution associated with the burning of fossil fuels. The environmental degradation. The millions of dollars our government forks over to- the Big Oil Boys in the form of lavish subsidies and generous tax breaks. Professor Rees reckons that if we were really paying the freight, each liter of gas we buy would cost us anywhere from 2 bucks to $5:40 a pop. Maybe he's right. I do know that we humans have an ongoing love affair with our cars. And we all know that love is blind. A couple of years ago I visited the city of Florence, 983-5207 We've opened patio inf Italy. Florence is one of the great urban treasures on the planet. Unbelievable architecture. architecture. Breathtaking paintings and sculptures. Exquisite piazzas and galleries and streets. . 1 couldn't wait to get out of the place. Florence...stinks. It is polluted with honking, spewing, spewing, farting vehicles that befoul the air, clog the lungs and befuddle the mind. If Michaelange'lo or Cellini dr Giotto were to revisit their beloyed metropolis, I know they would run, screaming for the Tuscany hills. Dante would think he'd found his Inferno. The internal combustion combustion engine has turned Florence into a screeching, fume-shrouded, lung-searing urban nightmare. Saddest thing of all, hardly anyone seems to" notice. It's a little different in Canada - we have more space • but we depend even more on :he automobile. And the end •esult isn't any prettier. Rush rour in Vancouver or Montreal or Toronto isn't that different from rush hour in Rome, Paris or Singapore - it's still bloody awful. Actually if you've got a twisted, sense of humour, it's ever so slightly hilarious. In London, rush-hour traffic now moves more slowly than it did a hundred years ago when people travelled on foot and by horse. Some places - in Western Europe particularly -- are just beginning to fight back. Governments there are beginning beginning to discern the obvious civic benefits (and municipal savings) of improved bus and street car systems and seriously seriously dedicated bicycle lanes. Last fall, 150 cities in France, Italy and Switzerland got Come in and see our new line of tables • chairs • umbrellas park benches • barbecues & patio slabs. Join us Saturday for a glass of lemonade on the patio! ♦♦♦♦♦♦ Corner of Taunton Rd. E. & Bethesda Rd., Bowmariville, Ontario *263-2293 AM PM after 12 Walking Senior $32.10 $21.40 Walking Junior $26.75 $16.05 2 People & Cart . $70.00 $55.00 Mon-Thurs Special: 2 People & Cart -- $40.00 Saturday Special: 2 People & Cart - $45.00 (S^êêË: Sbë&b Gloves regularly $8.95 now 3 for $20 Golf Bags from $59.95 Cart Bags regularly $199.95 now $119.95 11 piece sets from $199.95 Bacon & Eggs $2*75 plus tax Hot Hamburg $2*50 phis tax Eat 611/Take Out Fish & Chips $3*95 + t«.v Phone for tee offs 2 days in advance after 8 a.m.