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: = = os oh a) Ch yb --" = Q Nd ly ert 2 RA © FEE A Editorial Comments 'We lose . . . It certainly looks like Uxbridge Township will be given first crack at the Canadian Penitentiary Service's new reception centre, if we've read between the lines accurately enough, that is. ~ Only to a handful of local residents is that a good thing. Those who see Port Perry as a future cultural 'centre and feel that such a system would blacken the name of the community are the only ones who apparently come out ahead. For most of the rest of us, we've lost. - Certainly those who looked to the reception centre as a source of jobs, broadening of the tax base, and meeting our community and social responsibilities, it is a very obvious loss. To those who see danger from the proximity of such an institution, it is obviously no comfort to see it only a few miles further down the road. Perhaps one of the main lessons that can be learned here is the need for responsible, but speedy action by those we've elected to act responsibly and speedily when opportunity knocks. Parking problem ? Living only about three minutes away from the office, on any given morning my routine is to leave the house, jump into an ice cold car, drive quickly downtown, pull up in front of the office of the STAR, turn the car off and run inside to get out of this cold miserable weather. There, right under a two-hour parking sign, my car will stay until | go home. This is not a unique situation, for numerous other businessmen follow this same pattern everyday, a situation that is causing a considerable parking problem on Queen Street. 8 But, the blame is not all the merchants. A by-law passed a few- years ago stipulates two-hour parking on Queen St., and that by-law, for some reason is not being enforced. A'child at school who knows he is not to chew gum in class, WILL chew his gum, unless his teacher enforces the rule. Likewise, until the by-law is enforced, merchants will continue to occupy spaces needed by customers, unless<he received a ticket for doing so. 'Why? Because it is convenient, and he, like everyone else, enjoys convenience. Put a ticket on my car windshield today and tomorrow my car will be parked at the rear of the building where it belongs. Follow this procedure down the length of the street and we will gain an abundance of new parking spaces for the people each and every business depends on.... The customer. - 'Docror KISSINGER, | PRESUME ? 2 pd Remember When. .? 50 YEARS AGO Thursday, February 4, 1926 The first amateur contest of the Port Perry Picture House was held Tuesday evening. The entrants of eight presented their selec- tions in a very capable manner and the judging done by the audience award- ed the prizes to Messrs. Harris Armstrong and 'Mitchell in the seniors and to the Misses Turners in the juniors. Following his installation as Warden of Ontario County, Reeve George Sweetman, Township of Scugog said in his speech, "Good economy would be his watchword and that all members of the council would support him to at least keep the tax rate at the present level". Walter J. Donaldson in a letter to the STAR from New York: "I had the pleasure of watching a hockey game in Madison Square Gardens last night between Toronto's St. Pats and a New York hockey team, ending in a 1-1 tie. I cannot speak too highly of the wonderful work in goal by Port Perry boy Ross Roach. Without him in goal the St. Pats would have been badly beaten. 25 YEARS AGO Thursday, February 1, 1951 By popular vote of the students and the teachers, Howard Garvey, grade 13 has been chosen to represent Port Perry High School at the United Nations Assembly from February 7th to 11th. The trip was made financially possible by the local Lions Club when the members decided to con- tribute to the exciting and educational trip. 15 YEARS AGO Thursday, February 2, 1961 Fire destroyedwthe farm home of Mr. Keith Crozier, occupied by Mr. McQuinn on Scugog Island on Monday evening. Port Perry Fire Brigade was called, but was unable to save the building. The family was away at the time of the fire. The members of Port Perry Figure Skating Club is of a high standard. At a recent test held in Lindsay, the members received 92.12 per cent, a high score by any -club. Frank Barkey, R.R. 3, Claremont was elected The old grain elevator president of Ontario County Burketon CPR. Station Jur Farmers Association, landmark no more. 'It we "built approximately 70 years ago. It has been owned by Wallace Marlow for the last 10 years and has now been taken down by John Hamil- ton and his crew of workers. Robert Lawson has been appointed manager of the Port Perry Branch of Master Feeds. was Ted Lamb, RR. 4, Port "Perry "was elected vice president and Donna Johnson, R.R. 4, Uxbridge, secretary-treasurer. - South Ontario Farm Association elected Lance Beath, R.R. 1, Brooklin, president and Lorne Disney, also of R.R. 1, Brooklin, vice president. 10 YEARS AGO Thursday, February 3, 1966 Gale force winds, gusting up to 45 miles per hour slammed down on Port Perry and the surrounding district over the weekend. Monday morning's visibility was nil, and motorists venturing onto the highways were either lucky or unlucky, and a great many . unlucky drivers were bogg- ed down in the huge snow- drifts. Most schools in the area were empty when both students and teachers were unable to make it. The Port Perry Star won a second prize for general ex- cellence in the annual Ontario Weekly Newspaper Association's newspaper contest. 'At a joint meeting be- tween the school boards of Port Perry, Reach and Scugog, it was decided that Scugog schools should join with Port Perry public school as of January 1, 1967. This is due to the fact that Scugog "schools has below the mandatory daily atten- dance of 100. Bill Smiley Getting old Holy Ole Moly, I must be getting on! Just walked in the door, picked up the mail, and there was an invitation to a retirement baron of the Ottawa Valley. Gene must be either dead or in tough shape; as he wasn't at the summer national weeklies' conven- reward -- knowing you had stuck to your principles, and written a unpopular editorial, letting the chips fall strong and believe in holidays and all those things we never heard of and inge benefits and peoples' lives. They wi die broke. They f] party for Pete Hvidsten, publisher of the Port Perry weekly newspaper. Say it isn't so, Pete! Per (Pete) Hvidsten is a friend of more than a quarter of a century, but is seems only yesterday that he and I were the life of the party, waltzing the girls off their feet, watching the dawn come up as we sat in the bow of one of the old passenger steamers sailing up the St. Lawrence, while every- body else, including the very young, had gone to bed. This retirement gig is a trend that deeply alarms me. All my buddies are putting themselves out to pasture. They don't seem to spare a thought for me. I have to teach until I am eleventy-seven to get a pension. About a year ago, three old and closé weekly newspaper friends phoned me from a convention in Toronto: Don McCuaig of Renfrew, Gene Macdonald of Alexandria, and Pete Hvidsten. It was about midnight and they weren't even flying yet. I sensed something wrong. I thought they needed Smiley there to get some yeast into the dough. They sounded tired. McCuaig is semi-retired, a newspaper tion, which he never misses. And now Pete. Migawd, chaps, I'm just getting warm- ed up in the teaching profession. I reckon I have another 20 years to go, leering at the latest skirt-length, telling and re-telling my four jokes, trying to sort out the difference between a dangling participle and a split infinitive. How dare you "retire", when I have to go on working? Well, maybe I know, at that. You've quit because you've worked like a dog for 30-odd years in one of the toughest vocations in the world -- weekly editor. I had 11 years . of it, and if I'd continued, I'd probably be pushing up pansies right now. We were in it together when you worked 60-70 hours a week, when you had a big mortgage to pay off, when staff was tough to get and hard to keep, when the old press was always breaking down and you couldn't afford a new one, when you had to sweat over a four-dollar ad, when you were lucky to take home $60 or $80 a week. But it had its rewards, right? There was that sheer physical satisfaction of seeing the first copy run off and folded, smelling of ink, practically hot in your hands, like a fresh-baked loaf. There was another type of where they might. There was the deep pleasure of seeing, after months of writing and urging, the reluctant town fathers adopt a policy that was right and good, instead of merely expedient. Some people would prefer to be remem- bered by a plaque or a statue. A good, old-time weekly editor would die happy, if they named a new sewage system or old folks' home, for which he had campaigned, after him. There aren't many of the old breed left, come to think of it. George Cadogan, Mac McConnell, Art Carr, the Derksens of Saskatchewan. The type of editor who could set a stick of type, fix a machine, run a linotype in a pinch, carry the papers to the post office, if necessary, pound out an editorial. There is a new breed abroad in the land. Many of them are graduates of a school of journalism. This type wants every news story fh a feature article. They all want to be columnists, not reporters. There's another type, among the young: They refuse to believe that a weekly editor should be poor but proud. They work on the cost of a column-inch rather than records of couldn't afford. Maybe it's all for the best. We were suckers. We literally believed that-an editor's first allegiance was the betterment of the entire community, not himself. "Weekly newspapers, today, are better- looking, fatter, richer. They are put together with scissors and paste, printed at a central location on a big, offset press which doesn't break down, folded and bundled with dispatch. The only thing that hasn't improved is the postal delivery. But a great deal of that personal involvement is gone. The editor is not as close to his reader as he once was. When I was in the game, I was always introduced to strangers as: "This is our editor". Not The editor of our paper, but our editor. Pete Hvidsten, green pastures. Keep your nose out of it, and let the young guys make a mess of the paper. We had a good session at the oars of the galley. And any time you want a game of arthritic golf, you know where to come. As a practically barely almost niiddle-aged school teacher, I think 1 can handle a "retired" editor any time. The Argyle Syndicate Ltd.