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SP ARIS ae Heh Ea Hay 4) $id BRAN Re EEL HR SR Ne no fe SR = Sat We have such a crazy climate in this country that by the time this appears in print some dingbat will have spotted the firs crocus peeping its dainty head through SNOW. 'But right at the moment, any such crocus would have to come from the garden of Kong. ; winter has been not a little unlike a sort of arctic King Kong -- a vast, uncon- trollable monster laughing with fiendish glee at the prospect of puny man trying to cope with his whistling, frigid breath, his frosty and fickle fingers, and his extremely bad case of dandruff. Around these parts we've had 13 to 15 feet of snow; depending on whom you. are conversing with, If you are talking to me, you'll learn that we've had 18 feet. My wife would say: "About 12 and a half feet", in that sickening, righteous tone of hers that has made me hurl the hatchet and the butcher knife deep in the 16 feet of snow right behind "the kitchen "door, to avoid temptation. 'Though: we have a pretty 'good running parry-and-thrust. on everything from: pea soup to politics; from golf to garbage, we just don't fight about the weather. Until this winter. Now it's hammer and tongs almost ev day. And I seem to have wound up with the tongs. I stagger out through the blizzard every RS 3 a B= 2 rons CES i f-72: Smiley er's Viewpoint PORT PERRY STAR -- Wednesday, Mar. 2, 1977 -- § A EA Ss Oh Canada . morning, brush the snow off the car, scrape - the ice off the windshield with my finger- nails because she has lost the scraper, and sit there freezing my poorly padded bum for 10 minutes, warming the beast up. Then I bomb the vehicle out of the driveway, risking my life every morning; because I can't see anything coming, from any direction. I park it on the street. On the odd occasion when she decides to - shop, she minces out to the car, heavily garbed, climbs into a warm wagon, parks _ behind the supermarket and walks 40 feet to the door. Every time she goes out, it has -stopped snowing for one hour, the wind has dropped for one hour, and the sun gleams palely for one hour. She leaved the car out on the street when she comes home. I clean it off again, buck it through more snow that goes in over my through more snow that goes in over my" boots, and totter, breathless and forlorn, into the house. "Why do you make such a fuss?" she queries. "It's been a beautiful winter day." I don't mind her scoffing at my golf game, being able to ski twice as fast and far as I, or wondering aloud why anybody reads my column. But this winter she's gone too far. One of us has to break: either the weather, or me. She won't be so dam' smart when she wakes up-on the first day of the March break and finds a note pinned to her pillow: "Off to the Canary Isles for 10 days. Hear they're loaded with Scandinavian girls in bikinis or (gasp!) topless, Why don't you go and visit Grandad for a week or so. Love," Fahrenheit Bill." She's a Celsius and it drives me nuts. But it's not only my wife who has helped, with the aid of this atrocious winter, to depress me. It's the cost. «This is rough reckoning, but close enough. From last November the first, it has cost me, approximately: $420 for fuel oil; $120 for driveway plowing; $50 for the kid next door, snow-shovelling; $60 for battery boosts, tow trucks and other winter items for cars. That, my friends, is 650 bucks for the privilege of spending the winter in the true north, strong and freez- ing. Oh Canada! You can well say that I didn't need to spend all that, Well, I dang well did. I could have saved a bit on the oil bill by burning the furniture. And I could have saved a bit on the plowing and shovelling if I had been able to quit my job and shovel about four hours a day. But it seems rather a peculiar way to save money. And of course, by now I'd be dead of a heart attack, so where's the percentage? Tell me, some of my friends who go south every winter. Does it cost more to eat down there? Less, you say. Does it cost more to drive a car down there? Less, you say. Does it cost more for accommodation? Less, you say, and you add that it can cost $52 for an ordinary double room in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver. But don't you get sick of all that fresh orange juice, and those crispy salads twice a day? No, you say. : Don't you feel you are deserting the ship, somewhat, when your country needs you, when it is the duty of every man and woman to put his and-or her shoulder to the car that's stuck in the drift? No, you say. Have you no thought, no slightest sym- pathy, for the pensioner who tries to peer through his frosted windows, who is scared to venture forth because he might bust his back in a foot-skid, or freeze into a statue on his way to the liquor store? Definitely not, you say. ' 0K. O.K. I haven't figured it out yet, but I'll devise some way of some day getting even with all you rotten rich who - are loafing around in the sun while I battle with the Old Battleaxe about the windchill factor. : In the meantime, it's the least you could do, somebody, anybody, to ask me down for a long weekend. From about the 15th of February to the Ides of March would be just right. The Argyle Syndicate Ltd. Explains why hunting in Scugog should be banned Dear Sir: Regards Hunting and Hunters: I know there are respons- ible hunters and I know lots of them, It just happens __that where I live I have a lot of hunters come who are not. As my farm runs from the Cartwright boundry, which is an unimproved road, I have a lot of hunters and in 25 years of living here I could count on one hand the ones who have asked for permission. Any weekend in the fall I can go back there and find hunters in my woods. They have been in there when we were there cutting - wood and "when 60 YEARS AGO Wed. March 7, 1917 Mr. Arthur Prentice is house, Mrs, John Ford and Mrs. Sam Farmer * attended the Temperance . Convention in Toronto. Mr. James Ward has bought the property of Eva Luella Jeffrey. Mrs. Gwen Nott enter- tained at a miscellaneous moving into Mr. Pen- shower in honour of the weekend Tely. shall's house on Crandell Marguerite Waridel, a Street. _.._ recent bride. 10 YEARS AGO Mr, and Mrs. J. Stone- - Mrs. Burneill and Thurs. March 2, 1967 family of Alberta are visiting at the home of Mr. and Mrs. H. Martyn, Prospect. A consumer update: made-to-measure suits - Mrs. e Rose on 50: i ed; P. Hvidsten, D. John Streols a a McRitchie, J. Lumgair, At the regular mee - 6 for 25c. D. Madsen, A. Hatelie, R. bars si Wilson, and J. Franssen of council in Port Perry, 20 YEARS AGO ) . . ; > Ira Thurs. March 4, 1957 sons attended the meet- EE owns. | "Thy Winery Uf We at heed Sie moet the fire alarm, were first 14°08 Club Public Speak- 1 Brownie Pack, Monday at the Town Hall with NB contest for Seniors evening when 14 Brow- horse or motor vehicle to ~~ Were Mary Lynn Hodgins nies received their haul the hose reel to the' and Bruce Taylor. Golden Ladders and be- fire Wd Bo the quick came Guides. At the The old steel bridge nxng of Mr. Tom same meeting, Dianne over the Nonquon kidge Sandiland, the Western Taylor was presented at Seagrave is a thing of Tire Store, owned by Mr. with her. All-Round Cord Bob Howsam, was saved, Angora rabbits for many years, has been given considerable publicity in . Port Perry Lions Club membership is at an all time high and has passed the 50 mark. At the * Monday meeting, seven new members were add- Approximately 90 per- by Commissioner Kyte asked to leave they said they knew we were there but they were being careful. I have found a lot of people who feel that they have bought a licence and they have a right to hunt. They climb 'over fences between the posts, in fact I even found myself looking down the . barrel of a gun when I was checking the fence after a steer got out. Not only myself, but my neighbours have run into similar experiences plus one time a deer was shot and left. This, plus the fact of fences being broke down, gates left open, etc, let alone the fact that we have cattle pasturing in these areas is the reason1 would like to have no hunting, I would also like to point out that our wild life is getting very scarce. At one time, I could go into the woods and see grouse or even pheasants. confronted hunters leaving our woods with a catch of grouse. I think that it is nice to go into the woods and see some wild life for after all this is part of nature. I know that there are respons- ible hunters besides irres- ponsible hunters, but I won- der if the "responsible" hun- ter wouldn't get as much enjoyment hunting with a camera as he does with a gun. I have Yours truly, Vernon Asselstine. "Some responsible, others not Dear Sir; : - I have read with interest ~ your Editorial on "Hunters" in the February 16th, 1977 issue, no doubt sparked by Council's discussions on that subject at a recent meeting. The statement that hunt- ers are not irresponsible them no malice whatsoever, I am moved to ask why we should open our lands for hunting because they lobby for it? It would make just as much sense to have a petition signed by everyone in the Oshawa Area voicing their objections to the hunt members of that Associ- ation, but when you are asking someone to get off your land, you do not ask for affiliations. We like the wildlife, and now since all species are few and far between, why endanger them any more? A] requires a little clarificat- in our area. It is possible ion. Some are irresponsible that none of the people we Yours very truly, and some are not, and I had problems with were agree that they should not all be tarred with the same brush. I and others want to keep them all off our proper- ty, but how do you do this? The O.P.P. and the Ministry of Natural Resources agree they simply have not got the manpower to police an area as large as Scugog. The Township, on the other Editor: I am in my fifth year of tracing my mother's family tree Apparently my great- great grandparents came to Canada from Ireland in the John Townson. Needs assistance Ontario, Peter Flanagan and his family are listed as living on lot 29, concession 4, King Township, York County. . Children born in Canada besides William were John, De 4 TaN . RE aah a ho te lg oe i . last week when fire, believed to Sixteen rinks partici- and with no bility early 1840's landing at Hal- Peter and Thomas. as fet a5, moved owt have started by spontané- pated for the Creamery attached to that motion ifax, Nova Scotia. William married Harriet Mrs. S. I. Barrett's sale 48 combustion, broke Package Trophy at the | opens the door and from The family included my a Maybee from Penn- at Manchester was well Outin the basementof the annual club held then on the landowner is great-great grandparents, sy These were my attended and good prices . store. recently in the Port virtually on his own, Peter Flanagan and his wife great grandparents. She were realized At a joint meeting of Perry Curling Club. Win- I met several hunters dur- Margaret McGowan, their died September 5, 1921 and y the Junior Farmers held ning the trophy were ing the last fiasco, and not oldest child, Mary, who was he died March 31, 1922. 35 YEARS AGO at the High School recent- Muriel Fisher, second; one was from our Township, born in Ireland December Peter Flanagan, the elder, Thurs. March 5, 1942 ly, a square dance com- Helen Green, vice; Irene so who are we catering to? 11, 1837, and Peter's brother died May. 6, 1855, aged 44 - Epsom and Utica petition was held. The Carter, skip; and Ruth A recent letter to the John, years, 4 months. raised over $500.00 for the Beaverton, Brooklin and Short, lead. Ministry of Natural Resour-, Peter and his family even- McGowan died June 17, 1893, British War Victim's Uxbridge Clubs entered Congratulations to Mr. ces from the Township indi- ' tually moved to Ontario aged 85. Fund. with Uxbridge winning and Mrs. Wilbert Stone, cates a copy sent to the because his next oldest Mary Flanagan married - At the Epsom Parson- the competition. Seagrave on the occasion | South Central Ontario Big child, William, was born in Matthew Clancy. 'He died age, Mr, Malcolm Bailey 255s padsey Kent, who of their 40th Wedding Game Assbeiaton They Richmond Hill on March 4, May 15,1881, aged about 85 took as his bride, raising Anniversary. are berthed Oshawa, 1842, 2 ustly i understand. While I bear On the 1851 census for (continued on page 6)