The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

4 -- PORT PERRY STAR -- Tuesday, June 12, 1984 aditorial comments « ho ars the boys an' ouy FoR! 2 $e 34' 416 boys 81 OF Chegy / chatterbox by Cathy Robb OH, RONNIE BABY parents, boss was gone fishing and I got a bear hug from (sigh) a real live celebrity. Ronnie Hawkins. Sigh. You know the man. Rompin' Ronnie? The Hawk! Mr. Dynamo, the king of rockabilly!!! Yeh, well, ever since I interviewed him last Tues- day, me and The Hawk are like this. He calls me Cathy and I call him Ronnie. None of this Mr. Hawkins stuff. No sir. Not after The Hawkins' Hug. I mean, it was all very innocent. When the interview was over it was time for my cohort Peter Hvidsten to take some snaps and since Pete is basically a corny kind of a guy he insisted in a 'cuddle shot' of me and The Hawk. So Ronnie obliged ---- and my heart yo hasn't stopped pounding. What a man! You know how when photographers sometimes want you to wrap your arms ~ RL FI VATE er Lo. Cathy Robb gets a great big "Hawkins Hug" from Rompin' Ronnie Hawkins following an inter- view at his home north of Lakefield last week. Ronnie is coming fo Port Perry's Western Day celebrations this July. For Cathy's account of the interview read Chatterbox. I had a great week. Only one major fight with the around the other people in the picture? And you do, ex- cept you do it kind of wimpishly in case the other peo- ple (or person) gets the wrong idea? Like you're a fruit or something? Well, none of this wimp stuff from Ronnie. He just grabbed me, slung an arm the size of a tree trunk around my waist and hung on like I was the last girl in the world. Swoon. Some folks might say The Hawk is over the hill and out of shape, but they've sure as shooting never met the man. Okay, so he's got a bit of Molson muscle around the middle. So what? When you get to be his age, you're entitled. But he's still a charmer, with the gruff physical ap- peal of a cowboy, the thick Arkansas twang which has helped make him famous, the infectious belly laugh and a surprising amount of sensitivity buried under an endless series of crude one-liners. I forgot to ask him but I'm sure The Hawk doesn't eat quiche. Real men don't, or so I hear. And you gotta know, The Hawk is as real as they come. WHAT THE HECK! I walk into Peter's office on a Friday afternoon. "How'd you like to do an interview on Tuesdsay?"' Peter sez. "With who?" I ask suspiciously, visions of local councillors dancing through my head. 'Ronnie Hawkins," he grins, looking like he just swallowed a parakeet. "Uh, yeah," I think I said. A CELEBRITY! OH, GAWD. T'VE NEVER INTERVIEWED A REAL LIVE CELEBRITY BEFORE. 'Uh, where?" "His ranch. We'll both go 'cause I want to talk to his promoter about Western Days." The Hawk is coming to Scugog Arena, July 14. And I'm going to his ranch. My journalism teacher never warned me about famous rockabilly stars. What do you do? Bring along a case of beer and a tape recorder, get him drunk and then sell his most intimate secrets to the National Enquirer? Do you act humble, like you're real- ly impressed by a Star? Or do you act cool, like you just came from an interview with Michael Jackson? Do you ask him for his autograph? Awwwh, what the heck. CANADA NEON POST The road to Ronnie Hawkin's place is paved with orange mailboxes. 'Look for an old orange mailbox and then take the road to its left," were the directions issued to Pete by The Hawk's promotional team. Okee, fine. | mean, how many times do you see an ORANGE mailbox? Think about it. Aren't most maiboxes black and white with red flags or white with black lettering or just plain dented aluminum? Well? Sure, there are a few unusual ones here and there but how many neon orange mailboxes can there possibly be on one 15 km. or so stretch of lonely highway? Well, not counting the black mailbox with orange lettering (which turned out to be Ronnie's) there are at least seven. (Turn to page 6) Shocking We are shocked that a young B.C. woman who last week drew a life sentence for a series of serious crimes, including the fire bombing of the Litton Plant in Toron- to, will be eligible for parole in five years. Ann Brit Hansen, a self-styled "urban terrorist," whom the sentencing judge called a menace to society, could be out of jail in five years, no doubt to pick up the vicious trail of violence and destruction. Hansen received the life sentence not for the bom- bing of the Litton plant (she got 12 for that) but for con- spiracy to commit armed robbery of an armoured car. In Canada, a person sentenced to life for a crime other than murder is entitled to parole eligibility in seven years, and the fact that Hansen already has spent near- ly two years in the slammer might be taken into consideration. The long litany of violent crimes perpetrated by this demented individual is enough to make even the toughest police officeer cringe. The bombing of a B.C. hydro station; bombing a video store; possession of dynamite other explosives and weapons; the bombing of the Litton plant which seriously injured a dozen people. Her final act of defiance came in the B.C. courtroom last week when she hurled a tomato at the judge who was sentencing her. It missed, but why she was allow- ed to bring a tomato into court may be another story. This individual is obviously bent on one thing: bring- ing about change through violence. This is something our society should never tolerate in even the slightest way. g Life imprisonment for her should mean just that. While it would appear that the parole board would turn down any application for release in five years, one never knows. ; And that's the absurd part. The fact that even a technical possibility for parole exists is beyond comprehension. Those who take the law into their own hands without thought of the safety of others and the destruction of public and private property, should be removed from the streets forever. Jobless Youth Acting Prime Minister Jean-Luc Pepin found himself in the centre of controversy last week for his comments that some of the nation's unemployed youth are in that position because they are just lazy. It was not a very astute comment to make and the opposition parties in the Commons were quick to jump down Pepin's throat over the remarks. After all, there are by government figures, about 800,000 young Canadians either out of work, or without "'meaningful activity.' (whatever that means) right now, and that in itself is something of a national tragedy. But let's be realistic. There are some lazy young people in this country, just as there are lazy people in all age brackets, who will simply find some way around an honest day's work. However, we have enough faith in the young peo- ple of this country to state emphatically that those who are lazy and trying to dodge a job are a very small minority. Unfortunately, because of the behaviour of a few, nothing more than a decent chance, end up tarred with the same brush: guilt by association, if you will. What is even more distressing is that despite the tact governments at both the federal and provincial level are throwing great sums of money into youth training and re-training programs, the job outlook may be permanent- ly bleak, according to Youth Minister Celine Hervieux- Payette. It seems to us that youth re-training and employment opportunities have been '"'high priority' with govern- ments for decades, and just where has it led us: 800,000 still unemployed or under-employed. In fact, we shudder to think just how much govern- ments have spent studying the problem and coming up with the same programs under new names. There are some today, especially those who claw- ed their way through the Great Depression, who say that young people should take any job they can get, and be damn thankful for it. That may be a little harsh, but there is something to it. Finding a job is tough. Hanging onto a job is even tougher these days, and more often than not, that first job may not be up to one's expectations. Most young people know this and are willing to tough it out. For they also know that governments long ago ran out of silver platters.