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IPE SY IA RAN EAE Ra 22 rk yh PR A TR eS PACH LE bd Un ees a Pd § re, ba rides 5 N : REAR WR NRE Pa 9 ER THE EON PS La 4 fr { RAE Eke da 4 4 -- PORT PERRY STAR -- Tuesday, May 17, 1983 J oe Pm IX "editorial comments "SURE HE SHOULD RESIGN! You Pay MORE 70 RUN YOUR HEALTH ~-- AN' THEN HE JACKS UP THE RERAIR COS75 " . |chatterbox by John B. McClelland FILL ER UP The price of gasoline at most stations in Port Perry took a steep dive last week, dropping to 23 cents a litre - for the regular stuff and slightly more for the un-leaded. _ At23 cents a litre, that's just a shade over $1 per gallon, . the lowest it has been in this area for quite some time. I was delighted Friday afternoon to top up the tank - on the Buick with un-leaded premium gas and the bill was just over $15. Usually, my Buick gobbles $20 worth just driving by the gas station. } "7 "However, Titi concerned as well. Liké a lot of peo- ple these days, I'm wondering just why the heck the price of a gallon of gas can go up and down so quickly. What's going on with the oil companies.? One local gas station operator says his profit margin at 23 cents per litre is the same as it is'at 40 cents per litre. He also says that federal and provincial taxes on a litre of gas amount to 27 cents, and that doesn't change. So the governments are getting their share as always, the dealers are making their profit margin. Who is losing? I'm told it's the oil companies, the big boys. And quite frankly, that scares the devil out of me. Don't get me wrong. I like a bargain at the pumps as much as the next guy. But when the big oil companies are taking a loss on their product, something is amiss, and I have a sneaking suspicion they may have a sur- prise or two for the consumer some time down the road. You see, the big oil companies are 'not exactly charitable foundations. They are not in the business to make friends. They are in the business to make money: profits, big profits. So, if they are losing on the oranges today, you can bet they are going to make it up on the apples tomorrow. . to That's what scares me. I can't help but wonder what's going on in the board-rooms of the major oil com- 'panies in New York and Houston as they try to dump what essentially is a glut of gasoline. - Heck, it was just a couple of years ago when all those dire warnings were being circulated that we were LY - running out of oil, that the price would have to go to $3 _ ¢ a gallon at the pumps. There was talk of rationing, long line-ups, and the i demise of the internal combustion engine. Bicycles sold o like hot cakes, we were urged to conserve every drop vi J of precious gas, and schemes to power cars by the sun, the wind, the tides, steam, wood, sugar, alcohol and even manure were a dime a dozen. People worried about the coming energy crisis and what it would do to our life-styles. General Motors got ve panicky and cranked out a scaled down version of the is Cadillac that look e a cross between an Austin Mini and VW Beetle. Drive-in movie theatres were being shut down all over North America. People were walking to McDonalds, and anyone still driving a big V8 was a - social outcast; wasting our precious resources. So where are we today? There's too much gasoline on the market. The price is down and still falling, and the gas-guzzling hog is as popular now as it was in the 1960's. I'm worried. This can't go on. We are supposed to be running out of oil by 1986 and the conipanies are almost giving it away. Just when I starting to get used to the idea of a radically altered life-style in an oil-poor "world, T'mi starting to believe there is enough of the stuff to keep us happily motoring well into the middle of the next century. GONE FISHIN' This Saturday morning, I'll ease myself into the seat of a single engine Otter for a half-hour flight into the Quebec bush-lands north of the Ottawa River. Myself, my father, my brother-in-law and a long time friend are off on our annual fishing trip to Ten Mile Lake, a long, narrow stretch. of deep, cold water that _ yields fine lake trout and northern pike. We made the trip last May for the first tithe; liked . it so much that we booked the same cabin on the shore of the lake, which is almost 100 miles from the nearest civilization. ' It's just a simple fishing trip over the Victoria Day weekend, but co-ordinating the venture has turned into a major exercise in logistics. ay It's no easy feat getting four guys with all their gear, grub and booze into Ten Mile Lake and then out again three days later. My father, who is retired, has taken on the Job as wagonmaster for this trip, and he literal- ly has been working on the plans since Christmas. He has made all the arrangements, bought all the food, drawn up the itinerary to the point where I'm beginn- . ing to think this is a six-month expedition to the Amazon rather than a three-day fishing trip. p I'm not complaining in the least. I look forward to this three-day getaway. Bit I' can't help but think about the time when a fishing trip was much less complicated, less hectic." _ When I was a kid, a fishing trip meant getting up early one morning, throwing a couple of peanut butter sandwiches in the knapsack, grabbing a few dew worms off the lawn and bike ride to the trout stream which meandered through the forest about two miles from our house. Armed with a fishing pole, some line, a silver spin- ner and a small hook, I would often have several nice speckled trout in the knap-sack by nine in the morning, and be back home in bed by ten. It was nice to grow up with that trout stream as a - (Turn to page 6) Pioneer Days If the hustle and bustle of life in the 1980's sometimes gets a little much, you might want to take time this weekend to stop and have a look at how things might have been 50 or a hundred years ago. , = The Scugog Shores Museum is holding its annual Pioneer Days this coming Saturday and Sunday after- noon-with all kinds of events and displays depicting the way life was for our forefathers (and mothers). You will probably:-find it very interesting. And the Scugog Shores Museum, which is committed to preser- ving, restoring and reflecting the local history and heritage, needs the support of the public to continue its good work. Like many cultural institutions, the Museum is fac- ed with continuing tight budgets. A lot of the work is done by volunteers who have a genuine interest in their (and our) local heritage. Pioneer Days and the Canoe the Nonquon event early in June gre two major fund-raisers for the Museum each year. A So take a little time this weekend. Pay a visit to the Scugog Shores Museum on the Island Road just off Highway 7A. Take a step back in history, enjoy yourself and help support a worthwhile part of the community. See for yourself what the Museum has done and continues to do. Violence A 21 year old hockey player from British Columbia, in Toronto last week for a tournament, goes into a Yonge Street restaurant for a bite to eat. For-no apparent reason, he is accosted by two young men, total strangers. A scuffle breaks out and the . young visitor from B.C. winds up on the sidewalk with a very serious knife wound to the chest. He undergoes surgery and his condition is described as stable. On the weekend in an after-hours club in Toronto's west end, a young woman is shot and killed by a bullet in the face, fired from point-blank range. The man wanted in connection with this slaying has not been found. Likewise, the two young men who at- tacked the hcokey player from the west coast are still on the loose. : i Flipping through the pages of the daily papers, especially those papers which give prominence to gris- ly crime news, is an ever more depressing experience these days. . The'number of incidents of violence, many of them apparently without cause of provocation, seems to be on the increase. ' , Is this a fact, or as some might say, does it just seem -that.way because the. press is reporting. more of these. incidents? B We don't know the-answer to that question, but it ' seems that violence is creeping. into Canadian society to the point where some streets in our major cities are * not safe for the average. citizen. Something is wrong when a scuffle in a donut shop ends up with a young man getting knifed in the heart,' or a young woman shot in the face in a night club. Last year, the city of Toronto experienced several very brutal murders and attacks on young women, and some of these have not yet been solved. Our prisons are over-flowing:to-the point where authorities are toying with the idea of releasing non: - violent offenders just to-make more room. ~The court system is clogged with cases to the point where it sometimes takes months, even longer for a case to get to court. Re What is most frightening about what we are seeing these days is that people seem to be turning to violence of a callous, mindless nature with no regard for the life and safety of others. A knife in the chest, a pistol in the face Is not quite the same as a scuffle where somebody loses a couple of teeth or ends up with a bloody nose. - : It seems that just a few short years ago, Canadians were looking in horror at what was going on south of the border where city streets were battlegrounds and many an innocent citizen would end up face down in the gutter. Could never happen here, notin Canada. We don't do things like that. ! Well, it seems to be happening in Canada more and - more. It is not enough just to say this is a sign of the times we live in and leave it at that. : Maybe we need more and bigger prisons, tougher sentencing for those who are caught, beefed up police forces and so on. Maybe we need prisons where life behind bars is no picnic, where a ten year sentence means just that:'ten years. : We obviously need some changes, as it looks like society so far has been a dismal loser in the fight against violence in the streets. ar AE LL a rd Ll ME Pints id ie i SU Ud