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Te whine nA Ce i al DITORIAL PINION With combined efforts IT CAN BE DONE! Now that the Town Hall, built in 1873 has been saved from demolition and hopefully will be restored, it would be interesting to see what has been accomplished by the citizens of another town with much the same project. In March of this year the Star brought to the attention of its readers the restoration of Victoria Hall in Petrolia, built in 1887. A group of enthusiastic citizens of the community met and formed what was to be known as Victoria Playhouse, Petrolia (Inc.). Today Victoria Hall is well on its way to becoming a major regional center aimed at enriching the local cultural background in the area. This summer when Petrolia celebrates its 100th anniversary as a town, Victoria Hall will again be the center of life. A play will be written, and staged in Victoria Hall about Petrolia and its part in the oil industry of Canada, called "The Oil Show." In 1887 the cornerstone of Petrolia's symbol of transformation, Victoria Hall was laid. Two years later the two-storey buff brick building with its distinctive clock tower, visible for miles, was com- pleted at a cost of $35,000. The Architectural Conservancy of Ontario in its 1973 survey of Petrolia concluded the town is a "fascinating collection of Victoriana" and several buildings, including Victoria Hall, should be protected from indiscriminate destruction and alteration. The total cost of restoration of Victoria Hall is about $220,000, made available through government grants and private donations. Victoria Hall in Petrolia is larger than Port Perry's 1873 Town Hall and cost of restoration of the local historical structure is not expected to be as much. The Town Hall Committee will be taking over the building September 1. Scugog Township council at a meeting June 17 unanimously accepted an offer to lease the building for 99 years at a fee of $2. annually. From then on the Town Hall will be the responsibility of the Committee, and hopefully many other interested in the community as well as former residents living elsewhere on the North- American continent. Already fairly large sums of money has been donated to the important cause, but much more will be needed and when the Committee begin their campaign in the near future it is hoped the response from the public will be one of resounding success. If residents of Petrolia can do it, there is no reason in the World why local residents cannot do the same. _ ga ¥ | PORT PERRY STAR Company Limited Samy, : @cin 3 (0m) 2 ory Serving Port Perry, Reach, Scugog and Cartwright Townships P. HVIDSTEN. Publisher J. PETER HVIDSTEN, Advertising Manager Member of the Canadian Community Newspaper Association Member of the Ontario Weekly Newspaper Association Published every Wednesday by the Part Perry Star Co. Ltd., Port Perry, Ontario Authorized as second class mail by the Post Office Department, Ottawa, and for payment of postage in cash Second Class Mail Registration Number 0265 Subscription Rate: In Canada $6.00 per year. Elsewhere $8.50 per year. Single Copy 15¢ MILEY UGAR ano FAREWELL EUROPE I'M STUCK AT HOME Well, I thought this column would have a fairly exotic date-line: Amsterdam, Copen- hagen, Stockholm, Rue de Something-or- Other in Paris. That's what I had in mind for the summer. My young brother has an apartment, with lots of sleeping space, in the Black Forest of Germany, or the Schwarzwald, as we Jet-setters call it. He offered it to us as a base for bashing around western Europe. It was ideal. About five hours from Paris, the same from Switzerland, Denmark, Belgium, Berlin. A day to Sweden. A mere bagatelle to Holland. I had it all worked out. A one-day trip to Zurich, a two-day spree in Paris, a smash at a Munich biergarten (that's a coffin where you have to keep your socks up), with the occasional" foray into Frankfurt or Hamburg. Unfortunately, most of our forays this summer will be into hamburg. That's all we can afford, and that only once a week. There's an old nursery rhyme, which doesn't even rhyme, 'For want of a nail, the shoe was lost; for want of a shoe, the horse was lost; for want of a horse, the battle was lost; for want of a victory, the kingdom was lost." Or something like that. I'm quoting from memory. I read it in the Book of Knowledge when I was eight. And along with all those nails and shoes, a good bit of my memory has been lost. At any rate, you get the message. One thing leads to another. Or something. That's why I'm not writing this column from the Eiffel Tower in Paris or God's Badburg in Germany. It all started with the Good Samaritans. You may recall that I wrote a column a few weeks ago about some former students who come around and fixed my garage door for nothing. They absolutely refused to accept a cent. It gave me quite a warm glow at the time. - That warm glow has, over the intervening weeks, turned into a blazing ulcer. Not their fault. {t's my wife's. She's been saying for about two years, "Bill, we've got to get the house painted." I always agree. 'Yep. Sweetie, next summer for sure." Now, our house is not something you paint on a holiday weekend, buy a case of beer and getting some of your old buddies to come in and help. It's a two-and-a-half storey edifice of brick. Driving past, you might say, "Hell, I'd paint that for $85.00." There's just the trim that needs painting, you see. But that is some trim. there are thirteen storm windows, thirteen screens, eleventy- four shutters, two French doors, and at least twenty-seven blackbirds in a fir tree. That's before you start painting the trim. Well, in a burst of sentimentality, my old lady suggested we give "the boys' the job of painting the trim. I would have given them a case of beer and felt I was all even. The "trim" is costing me $500. Fair enough, in these days. I could have done it myself, but I'm not going to climb a fifty-foot ladder unless there's a mighty fair damsel at the top. And all they found was a hornet's nest. Next. The boss, who still calls me "Mr. Smiley" or "Sir", bless him, said, "Sir, you've got troubles, with that roof." My heart sank. I've been through it before. Well, I don't have to go into detail. Any home-owner knows the rest. The roof is shot, everything is rotten, though it hasn't leaked a drop since we came here. The only thing leaking is the downstairs toilet, just after we've spent $16 having it "fixed." "Farewell, Amsterdam, Farewell, Copen- hagen. Hello, roof. Hello, bank manager. I shouldn't complain, I guess. Suppose those boys hadn't come to fix my garage door. I might have been lolling around in Copenhagen, saying, "Pas de nuit, cherie," instead of answering the door ten times a day to loan the construction gang a screw- driver. ' It's going to be a $2,000 summer holiday. At home. It turns out that the garage has to be painted, too, and the back porch. Rather bitterly, I asked one of the "boys" if they shouldn't paint the woodpile, as well, to go with the decor. And with a nice twist of wit, he said, "Would you like us to paint the cat, as well?" He sleeps there. Why not? Green. Shutter green. With a high gloss. 50 YEARS AGO Thursday, July 25, 1924 Port Perry has accomplis- hed the laying of new cement roads and on August 7th a Road Opening Ceremony took place when many digna- taries were on hand for the large affair. Among them were County Road Superin- tendent, Warden MacMillan, W.E.N. Sinclair M.P.P. and Mr. L.O. Clifford, M.P. A parade which assembled at the Town Hall was in charge of councillors Neil Sweetman and George Jackson. The. first Port Perry Boy Scout Troup held a camp on the farm of Mr. Wm. Irwin, Honeydale. Scoutmasters Arlidge and Woodcock were in charge. Thursday, July 29, 1949 The 50 - 50 Club gave a farewell party to their treas- urers, Mary and Dave Walker when they left Port Perry to go to St. Thomas. At the Port Perry FEield and Crop Competition, the following people won prizes. 1st. Lloyd Smith, 2nd Leslie Smith, 34d Roy Robertson, 4th Harold Honey, 5th Eugene Darborn, 6t Edward Oyler, 7th Gitond Redman and 8th Burnsell Webster. Congratulations to Teddy Denny and Rex Burton of Scugog on passing their Entrance Examinations at Port Perry. Port Perry's baseball team drew their best of three semi finals with Sutton, when they defeated them 7 - 3. Bill Harper was the pitcher on the mound. (continued on page 23) ¢