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Editorial Comments Senior citizens are real people Once upon a time, a long time ago, when people were still human and old people still existed, grandpas and grandmas contributed the very roots of our society, a sense of belonging and continuancy to family life. The years of life'and experience proved the basic guidance to the younger generation, who not only accepted it, but actually searched out this vast source of knowledge and experience and gratefully learned from it, applied it to their own lives, or used it as a comparison for alternatives. As time passed, however, old people became more and more useless to their ambitious children. Their meager contributions of love, responsibility, morals, and sense of security became an albatros around their offsprings' neck. Youth, after all, realized it was money and power that made this world go around, that the ambitious reap the rewards, and that even the loveless are consumers. One day, somebody had an idea. Why don't we put all the old people in special homes, spread the cost around to everybody so it wouldnt hamper any individual financial ambitions. But this would solve only the financial problem, so a campaign was begun to make young old people, old old people. So successful was this propaganda, that even the young old people believed it. Old people became afraid of becoming older, and became determined not to "place a financial burden" on the young by being alive. Even physical addiction to the propaganda resulted, and old people insisted there was a physical need for earning power (whence comes the affectionate phrase "make grandad quit working and it'll kill 'im**). More and more, a unified train of thought resulted, and such wise new saysings as "they're much better off in a home' and "what we need is young blood'. And the ones in "homes" were the lucky ones. Thousands of them lived in small, one-room apart- ments, unvisited, forgotten, and cast aside. Without purchasing power (the rock base of this society) they could be ignored by society. Without political clout, they could be ignored by government. To soothe the public conscience and to suggest dignity where it was taken away, society changed the name "'old people' to "senior citizens". The name change also helped to soothe the young, who had done their propaganda works so well that the very mention of the world "old" resulted in morbid fear. Millions of dollars a week were spent on skin care creams, face lifts and cosmetics. Emphasis was on looking like the teen-age daughter, being "as young as you feel', and rinsing years off your face'. The last laught, then, was by old people, who didn't mind, after all.....because they are. Instead, most old people thoroughly enjoy their senior years, packing enthusiasm, action and enjoyment into their lives long lost by their offspring. mn <. Remember When a 30 YEARS AGO Thursday, June 18, 1925 The County tax rate for 1925 will be eight mills, one millless than last year, while the budget for the year will be $184,170 compared with $198,049 in 1924, a decrease of $13,878. Mrs. H. S. Brock was appointed County High School Trustee for Port Perry High School. Moffatt Motor Sales Ltd. was advertising Oldsmobile Six, anew six cylinder car for prices from $1,295 to the Deluxe Sedan at $1,895. 50 years ago, a musical comedy was presented in the Town Hall by the Joyful Musical Comedy Company. Admission, adults 50c, children 25¢c. 25 YEARS AGO Thursday, June 15, 1950 Port Perry. Junior Farmers boys and girls soft- ball teams were victorious at the County Field Day in Ux- bridge. Mr. Fred Christie was elected chairman of District No. 4 of Ontario Agricultural Societies which Ontario, Durham-Northum- berland, Victoria and Hali- burton. . Sunday morning and even- ing services at the United Church were devoted to observe the 25th anniversary of the Uniting of the Method- ist, Presbyterian and Con- gregational churches in Canada. "Corky", the well-known swimmer and water clown, visited Birdseye Center Park and assisted in the official opening of the swimming pool for the 1950 season. 15 YEARS AGO Thursday, June 16, 1960 For the first time in the history of Port Perry, teen- agers and others will be able to roller skate on includes indoor - surface. The arena will be open twice a week for this popular sport. A hit and run driver caused $50.00 damage to a truck parked on Queen Street Saturday. Mr. John Beckett, Scugog, had left his truck angle parked on the north side of the street when it was struck by a car proceeding west. A great many boats were put into Lake Scugog during the weekend. As they were being launched, two R.C.M.P. constables checked them for safety measures. A smaller, modified plan of the proposed addition to the parish hall was approved by the congregation of the Church of the Ascension. Itis expected to be completed about October 15. 10 YEARS AGO Thursday, June 17, 1965 Ruth Milne, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Donald Milne, Port Perry was elected May Queen during the May Fes- tival held at Ontario Ladies' College, Whitby. A good increase in the duck population over last year in the Scugog area is predicted by conservation officer Ben Smith, based on increased numbers of blacks, mallards, pintails and redheads seen feeding in cornfields border- ing the lake. The 1965 Cancer Society Campaign collected $300. more than the designated objective of $2,200. Fer the third consecutive year, Port Perry and Ux- bridge Branches of the Royal Canadian Legion played hosts to veterans of World War 1, or as they are more popularly called "Old Bills". Members of the Lions Club sold 2,400 light bulbs during their annual "Bag of Bulbs" campaign. It was a complete sell-out and grossed the Lions $600.00. Bill Smiley In defence As regular readers of this column are aware, there are a great many things that bother me. On the whole, I'm glad of it. May I never become one of those people who are never bothered about anything, or if they are, don't have enough guts to say or do _ anything about it. The list is endless: Celsius temper those silly organs at hockey games: 4triden Women's Libbers; stupid male chduvinists; gutless politicians; lawless uniqfis; greedy big business; chicken bureaucrats; tire- squealing adolescents of any age, mindless beer ads; town engineers who want to cut down trees; snotty hotel desk clerks; - religious fanatics; ripoff artists in the social services; the Receiver-General of Canada; most administrators; most people who make more money than I do. I could fill a column. This should make me a very disturbed young man. I use the term advisedly. How come everyone is getting old but you and me? Fortunately, this has not happened. There are so many things I like that I am usually in astateof happy balance, like a fat lady going on a diet of ice cream sundaes. However, there is one thing in this country that gravels me thoroughly. It's a nasty thing, spreading like a cancer, as difficult to fight, and just as fatal to the people infected. That thing is the steady growth in this country, fostered by a small, often vicious, but vociferous minority, of Anti-Ameri- canism. I don't think it has yet grown to uncontroll- able proportions in the corpus Canadiensis, and I hope it can be cut out with some rigorous surgery in the right places. It's a creepy, crawling business, and the healthy mind can be smeared with it subtlely, without even noticing its existence. * It's hard to pin down. You can find it among educators, in the press, among politicians, and in varying degrees of shrillness throughout the media. Many honest nationalists are taken in, and eventually find that their pride in things Canada has been warped into Anti-Ameri- canism. Let there be no mistake. There is no real connection. The former is healthy. The latter is sick. This has always been a country loaded with prejudice, whatever you may think. A couple of generations back, the Anglo-Saxons of this fine free country of ours looked down their noses, even though their own background was an English slum, a Scottish croft or an Irish shanty. They spoke bluntly and disparagingly of lesser breeds. German and Scandinavians were Squareheads. Italians were Wops and Dagoes. French were neither Canadian nor Canadien. They were Frogs or Peasoupers. Everybody from Eastern Europe to the. Ukraine was a Hunkie. A black person was a Nigger. And Jew? Well, a Jew certainly wasn't Jewish. He was "Just a Jew". The only thing lower than any of these categories was a woman. . Think I'm romancing? It sounds pretty ugly, doesn't it? But I was there, gentle reader, and so were many of you. " With education, enlightenment, and a find performance by most of those lowly immi- grants, came a change in atmosphere. It _ became fashionable to be ""tolerant", a word that has always made me squirm. - - But not before the private schools, and the law societies and the medical schools and the golf clubs had had their Wasps-only barri- cades knocked down. It was ugly in this country. The grandchildren of those earlier pre- judiced people showed a remarkable lack of that narrowness. Canada was becoming an oasis of freedom for the individual. People were leaning over backward to prove they were liberal and "tolerant". And now all that narrowness and secret hatred seems to be channeling itself into Anti-Americanism. People in this country talked endlessly about Watergate, as though such a sewer of corruption were peculiar to Americans. They sniggered about the antics of American leaders. There was a particularly nasty type of something near gloating when the Amer- icans pulled out of Vietnam. There was and is a proliferating of popular articles about the Americans owning Can- adian industry, buying up Canadian property. Let's put an end to this slimy business. Let's look at our own dredging scandals and lawless unions. Let's stop secretly cheering when the Yanks get a bloody nose somewhere. . It's not their fault that they're rich and powerful. They didn't seize our industry. We sold it to them. France and Britain virtually ignoredm, Canada when this country was abuilding. We owe them nothing. We would have a lot worse neighbors than the Americans: in fact almost anyone I can think of. . Anti-Americanism is chiefly petty envy, and js found only among those who are petty and envious. We're too big for that.