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I VIEWPOINTS _ McClelland John BB "I can't remem- ber if 1 cried, When | read about his widowed bride, But something touched me deep inside, The day the music died." Those words are from the classic "American Pie," by Don McLean and his lament was the death of music. These days in Canada a lot of people are wondering if they are not witnessing the death of hockey what with the NHL players on strike. I'm not sure the strike means the death of the sport (probably for this season) but it sure ushers in a new era. Let's face it, hockey at the profes- sional level, will never be the same again. I mean, here it is the first week of April, the week when playoffs should be getting underway and the players are out on the golf course, or renting ice time at small arenas in the suburbs to "keep the legs in shape" just in case. Just in case what? That somehow the NHLPA and the owners will bargain their way out of the impasse in time to play the last few games of the schedule and then get on with play- offs. Don't bet your old hockey socks on that. Hey, the sport is a business. | know that. You know that. But like many people who grew up listening to Foster on the radio and later watching the games in black and white with Danny Gallivan calling the play from the Forum and Bill Hewitt from the Gardens on Saturday nights, hockey will forever retain a certain mystique, a magic that fits the heart and soul of this place called Canada. As a kid, we lived and breathed it from carly fall to late spring: the Saturday moming games in the old arena, parents shivering behind the boards, sipping cof- fee, stomping their feet, clasping their mitten-covered hands. I can to this day see my Dad standing there with a green, peaked cap with ear flaps. I thought it looked so damn silly, but most of the other dads wore similar head-gear. Saturday afternoons, all day Sunday, every day after school, was a never-end- ing game of shinny, the teams changing whenever somebody new showed up. When the weather played havoc on the outdoor rinks (every back yard, it seemed, had an outdoor rink) we moved the game onto the snow packed street, threw away the puck for a tennis ball. Four large lumps of snow served as goal posts and the game went on and on and on. I don't recall anybody keeping score. We'd play til the cold drove us home, tired, hungry and half-frozen. Anybody who grew up in northern Ontario and played road hockey in January will remember the pain in the feet when the boots and damp socks came off in the warm kitchen. It would bring tears to the eyes of a 12-year old. Likewise a slap shot with a frozen tennis ball that caught you where the cup should have been. There were some pretty good hockey players from our neighbourhood, though none went anywhere with the sport. They were not that good. For me, hockey has had a couple of "deaths" before the strike. Cenainly when they expanded the old six team league to 12 (including the Califorhia Golden Seals) back in '67. And it really took a thrashing the day Wayne was "traded" from Edmonton the the Kings for a bunch of players and more cash than all the kids from the old neigh- bourhood will ever see in a lifetime. That's when it hit me hard that hockey is a business. There's no sentiment in the game, only spread sheets, contracts and people like Bruce McNall who can sniff profit and will deal anything and gvery- thing to make it. Wayne Gretzky, traded (sold) from that oh-so Canadian place called Ed: 10 The Age of Aquarius, this ain't. L Just ask any of the water bearers who called the Citizen office last week to say, "HEY! WHAT THE (bleep) ARE WE SUPPOSED TO DO THIS WEEK?" Frightened, they were. And wouldn't YOU be, if your zodiac sign was the ONLY sign not to appear in the Astro Advice Weekly column. What does that mean? Was it a twisted April Fool's Day k? Docs it mean the advice for Aquarius is so loathsome, so horrible, that the writer couldn't bear to share it with you in a news- paper? That she was going to call each and every Aqudtius in our reading area to ly? Cathy Ollitfe NEWS' number) has been twittering off the hook (these new phones don't actually RING), with calls from Aquarians who wanted to know if they were a) being discriminated against, or b) in the market for some seri- ous turbulence on the horoscope horizon. My husband, Doug, told one particular- ly frantic Aquarian that perhaps she might be better off staying in bed. I wish he would say that to ME more often. But not to worry, watery friends! Aquarius has not disappeared into the Fifth Dimension, it is alive and well and some- thing to sing about! Due to popular divulge the i Or does it mean that water bearers don't exist anymore? That the guy who controls all the puppet strings in the universe decid- ed Aquarius isn't necessary anymore, and banned it? Or does it simply mean that%he lunkhead who typed up the Astro Advice inadvertently missed typing Aquarius? Now THERE'S a possibility. I would say a very good possibility -- did I tell you Lunkhead is my middle name? This oversight on my part has created quite a stir in the Aquarius community. The Citizen phone (that boffo litle 985- ds d, Aquarius makes a triumphant debut in the Citizen! Get ready for a fight with the spouse! Sign all those blood-on- the-bottom-line contracts you've been wor- ried about! Rinse the sand out of your shorts 'cause you might be travelling some- where you might leam something. And if you don't own a hat, you'd better buy one quick and hang onto it -- someone's feeling feisty! Ooooh Aquarius, your life is a bi. h- way and | want to ride it...whoops, ure goes that Tom Cochrane again. Wasn't content to win EVERYTHING at the Junos, now he wants in my column too. Probably an Aquarius. Ayuh. the Kings of southern California? Little did I know, they'd soon put a team in San Jose and call it the Sharks. Sheesh! Wayne Gretzky, son of Walter, the man who stood countless hours in the cold flooding that back-yard rink, stringing lights, putting up boards and nets, just so the kids could play the game they loved. This strike by the players is not about working conditions, It's not about money, even, though things like free agency, the draft, playoff cash and rights to hockey cards are the issues. It's really about power. Who is going to call the shots in the NHL, the players through their association, or the owners. When any strike is about something as ill-defined as power, it won't be settled in a hurry, As I write this, the strike is in its 6th thy. Want to know something. I've hardly given it a second thought. Oh, sure, if the playoffs were on the tube, I'd be walch- A few days after the Gretzky trade, 1 shrugged that off, to. The game didn't die last week. The process began a long time ago. B= [NsiLvED MysIERY 4 Can you IMAGINE dressing your chil- dren in clothing like this? Your chil- dren probably cant -- you wouldn't catch Brandon or Brendon (whatever his name is, that guy on that Beverley Hills zip code high school show) wearing an outfit like the little guy on the right is wearing -- mind you, those Beverley Hills clotheshorses are older than these two little cuties who look as though they just stepped out of some kind of historical fashion maga- zine, but hey, fashion is fashion, and boy, haven't fashions changed? Actually, the baby's clothes reveal things havent changed all that much in - babies are still wearing booties, after all. Enough talk about clothes ~ do you know who these children are? The photo was taken by Port Perry pho- tographer W.H. Leonard, and that's all that is known. If you can solve this week's Unsolved Mystery, call the Scugog Shores Museum at 985-3589. Citizen columnist Marlene Russell is a funny girl. Last week our resident Academy Award afficianado looked at our 'Snapshot pix' of goats and said, "You guys are right on top of things -- this should be called Silence of the Lambs." She laughed, embar- rassed, when we told her they were GOATS, not lambs. Well Marlene, here's another lamb' -- meet 'Six Pack', who likes to eat bon- bons on the couch and watch Oprah. Thanks to Doris Brady of Bethany for the photo. If you have a snapshot you'd like to share, serid it ® the bind gy Nom il 36 Lou. 142. You could i hg "Snapshot of the Year' and win a great prize! . It's the man himself, this week! Ken Dowson is a familiar face around town. When time allows and he can leave Valu-mart, Ken enjoys curling and snowmo- biling. He's an avid warm § weather fisherman although he has no big plans for the summer, having just married off another daughter! Ken is a Past Noble Grand with the Oddfellows Lodge and has always enjoyed being involved in the community!