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Youngsters show the way Next week is National Week for the Mentally Retarded, and if the enthusiasm of local volunteers and helpers is any indication, it will be a successful one. One of the benefits of this particular campaign is not only the money that is raised for the many programs and facilities to train these handicapped people, but also the accompanying publicity that is slowly bringing the problem into the open. Of course the days of keeping the mentally handicapped behind closed doors and away from society are long gone. Today, programs are being developed that allow these children, and adults, to integrate with the rest of society. Yet one wonders if the attitudes of people who make up our society have changed sufficiently to make us truly enlightened. More than anything else, the mentally retarded need a community support, understanding, and acceptance. When we donate to the Flowers of Hope campaign, it may do us a world of good to realize that fishing for one's wallet is the easiest thing in the world. To truly understand, care, and be concerned. That's the test. Money....and understanding Speaking of fishing for wallets, we couldn't help but notice that the overwhelming majority of walkers in the Oshawa to Port Perry Old Town Hall walkathon were young people, public school stud- ents, to be exact. 3 For a project that seems to be gaining only slow support in some adult circles (and none at all in others), these young people crunched gravel for 11 miles. of the 111 kids that started, all but one made it. We wonder. What happens to people as they get older and crustier? Money probably. "Give 'em a few bucks, Mabel, and bring me a beer, willya." Why walk when that little bit of wrist action can . buy you another few hours in front of the tube. f i G LAS : \ 105¢AR QPustic | a D HE #NVELOPE . .. PLEASE 7 f Remember When..? FORESTS | national forest PART OF ALL OUR LIVES! week May 4-11,1975 50 YEARS AGO Thursday, May 7, 1925 .A delegation from Port Perry attended the Annual meeting of the Lake Shore Lawn Bowling League at Oshawa. Mr. E. L. Purdy was elected president and P. Ingram was elected secre- tary-treasurer. Mr, John Rolph died this week in Port Perry. During his life in Port Perry he had the proud distinction of pres- sing the button that turned hydro on in Port Perry, and formally opening Port Perry's cement highway. W. M. Croskery, local Agricultural Representative has arranged a Competition in live stock judging for young men in Ontario County. To be eligible you must be 25 years of age who have never had a course at Agriculture College. Ten pounds. of sugar this year cost 72c. 25 YEARS AGO Thursday, May 4, 1950 District Governor, R. D. Little, Richmond Hill was the guest speaker at the regular Lions Club meeting. Thieves broke into Earl Mitchell's home in Man- - chester last Friday during his absence in Oshawa. The back door was forced open, taking the door casing with it. The play 'Too Many Relatives' presented by Port Perry Yacht Club in 'Memory Hall, last week was exceptionally good. It was unfortunate that bad roads prevented so many from attending. "On April 29, Stuart Mark, Willie Heayn and myself had the pleasure of attending the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee," writes Fred G. Christie in an account in the Star. The large program consisted of more than 100 entertainers including per- sonalitites like Red Foley, Roy Acuff, Ernest Tubb, Hank Williams and Mervin' Shiner. 15 YEARS AGO Thursday, May 5, 1960 According to Game Warden Ben Smith, this year was Bill Smiley --_ -- very disastrous for the fish in Lake Scugog. The Depart- ment of Lands and Forests estimated that 1000 bass, 2000 muskellunge, 30,000 carp and 1000 perch have been lost this year. The cause being the heavy blan- ket of ice and snow which covered the lake for so long without any break in the weather which would supply fresh oxygen to the water. The sale of firecrackers in Port Perry has NV limited to the one week preceding the Victoria day weekend. 'Over two hundred guests attended the second annual At Home of Cartwright High School. During the evening, Miss Shirley Prosser was crowned Queen of the ball. According to statistics learned at the Community Memorial Hospital Open House this year, there were 1787 procedures done in the Laboratory, 20,361 meals served from the kitchen, 109 births, 5 being premature requiring special care in the incubator. It's metric madness 10 YEARS AGO Thursday, May 6, 1965 Debbie Garvey, 11 year old daughter of Mrs. A. Garvey was presented with her 23rd Brownie Badge at a cere- mony in the Scout Hall by her mother. . About 30 coaches; man- agers and umpires from Port Perry and area attended a softball school held in the Legion Hall. Gordon Goode was elected president of the Lions Club this year. Mr. Ted Whitter won $500. in the Bowmanville Glee Club annual draw. Miss Eunice Roach of Manchester has completed her first year at York Uni- versity and is working this summer at General Motors in Oshawa. Mr. Bruce Martyn of Prince Albert is home from Waterloo and has secured work in Oshawa for the summer. At the Hospital Board meeting, Mr. Harry Phoenix was re-elected as chairman with Charlie Reesor as vice- chairman. a RE oo One of the things about moder society that bothers me is mouthy minorities attempting to impose their wishes on silent majorities. Another is the attempt by those who profess a profound belief in a vague concept called "progress" to find the common denominator in everything, and try to shove the rest of us in that direction. Sometimes I have a nightmare about the future. Init, I see the entire earth populated by beings, no longer humans, who look alike, Everyone will be a sort of creamy yellow' brown in complexion. We'll all be the same: height and weight. All individual anomalies such as hooked noses, buck teeth and jutting ears will have been eliminated. I wake up from this dream screaming, at the point where I am just about to be told that we are all of the same sex. In the dream, everyone will speak the same language, some type of bastard speech like Esperanto. Literature will be extinct, except for a few scholars studying its fossilized remnants. Shades of meaning will.be lost. "'I love you," "Je t'adore," and "Eu te amo," will all come out as "Yochamo" or something of the sort. In the dream, there are no decisions to be made, because there will no longer be any difference between right and wrong, black "and white, good and evil. Television will tell talk alike, think alike, and even smell alike. us what to think, painlessly, and why. We will all smell alike - a subtle essence with traces of Chinese elm, Russian borscht, Congo musk and American B.S. We will all arise when the universal siren sounds. In unison, at the appointed moment, we will take our breakfast pill, our pep pill to get us going, our tranquilizer to slow us down for our lunch pill, another pep pill, a dinner pill, and 2245 hours, we will simul- taneously swallow our sleeping pills and become unconscious for six hours and forty-eight seconds. "But each evening, before retiring, we will have our universal culture and recreation period. Something like counting our toes. It's only a nightmare, but each year that I live, the picture seems closer and clearer. One of these days I'm afraid I won't wake up. . Two of the most recent steps by mouthy minorities and the people who. cherish common denominators are the attempts at the forced application of Celsius temper- atures and the metric system. Did anyone ask you if you wanted to switch from Fahrenheit to Celsius? No. Did anyone ask me? No. Did anyone ask either of us if we wanted to "think metric": Same answer. 1am used to attempts to brainwash me by; politicians, newspapers, experts, and my wife. That is what they are for, and at least I can fight back. But I deeply resent simply being told by some Ottawa ostriches and their stooges in the media that I must, willy-nilly, switch to Celsius thermometer and metric weights and measures. I am a reasonable man, I hope. If someone convinces me that something is for the common good, even though it inconven- iences me, I'll go along with it. Example: at this very moment, the government is removing money from me, who has never been unemployed, and giving it to some lazy bum who wants not to work. This is known as unemployment insurance. In the same way I am helping subsidize other people's food, medical care, housing. Not a word of complaint, But what gets me is the arrogant attitude that typifies those who espouse Celsius and metric. They do not present one valid (to me) reason for the changes. They say vaguely that everyone else is doing it. - So what? If the latest fad is joining the Flat Earth Society, must I become a member? If everyone else is picking his nose in public, does that mean that I should, too? Metric maniacs insist that metric is more accurate. More accurate than what? Is a thousandth of a centimeter more accurate than a thousandth of an inch? Of course not. It is merely shorter. Or longer. I'm not sure which, and I don't give a diddle. _Canadians, with their wild extremes of climate and vast expanse of geography, should battle this so-called "progress" with every ounce of their strength. Yes, the word was '"'ounce'"'. Do you realize that will soon be a dirty word, if the metric marauders have their way? Canada would lose its very flavor as a nation should we allow this metric-Celsius pap to flow over us and flatten us into a dull facsimile of all those other dull nations. For one thing, it would cripple our conversation, 60 per cent of which begins with a pseudo-complaint about the heat or the cold. It would destroy our idioms. Can you imagine our hero "centimetering" his way along the narrow ledge, rather than "inching", } '"'He's all wood and a meter wide' doesn't exactly stir me. Nor does, "third down and ameter, 40 centimeters to go for Winnipeg'. 3 rr 3 Well, the varmints haven't heard the last® of me. This is only a skirmish. But I need reinforcements. Come on, all you thousands who deplore the change. Iet's hear from you. Fire off a letter to your editor, for a start. Then we'll roll up the big guns. The Argyle Syndicate Ltd.