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letters po ado ER a - i ! a [TT Bill Smi ~ same article by referring I am writing in response to the article in last week's paper by Bill Smiley, entitled Educa- tion Stalemate. Even as I write I can- not believe that any grown person who would start his article by say- ing "In thirty plus years as an editor, a parent and a teacher," etc., could then finish the to children in the Special an excellent Modified Special Education class at R.H. Cornish Public School and I assure you he is not STUPID. His IQ is within normal range, Disability (another piece of jargon from the Boards of Education and others). We thank God for his sake that there are some people in Government and on the Boards of Education who his abilities and are willing to take the time and spend "'Lots of Money' to see him for what heis. ley way off base but he has a Learning 1 would point out at this time that we have two who will be go- ing into Grade 12 and 13 in September, and we have not found any reduction in the quantity and quality of their education since the Special Education Classes were initiated. I trust that Mr. Smiley will remember that these (Turn to page 6) PORT PERRY STAR -- Wed. August 8, 1984 -- 5 the ' PORT PERRY STAR CO LHMNTED . IS QUEEN STRELY PO OX 90 PORT PERRY ONTARIO LO8 WO (410) 905-738) J. PETER HVIDSTEN Publisher Advertising Manager J.B. MCCLELLAND Member of the CATHY ROBB News & Features Go AN CO <a MMUN PS Ne @ o% Se PERS ass0C RS of postage in cash. © COPYRIGHT -- All layout and composition of advertisetrents produced by the advertising department of the Port Perry Star Company Limited are protected under copyright and may not be reproduced without the written permission of the publishers. Canadian Community Newspaper Association Editor and Ontario Community Newspaper Association. Published every Tuesday by the Port Perry Star Co. Ltd., Port Perry, Ontario. Authorized as second class mail by the Post Office Department, Ottawa, and for cash payment Second Class Mail Registration Number 0265 Subscription Rate: In Canada $15.00 per year. Elsewhere $45.00 per year. Single copy 35* | ¥ 60 YEARS AGO Thursday, August 7, 1924 Wick Presbyterian Church' celebrated the 75th An- niversary of the opening of their church. The first minister of the church was Rev. John Mitchell. The following pupils of Mrs. J.E. Jackson were suc- cessful in their recent music examinations: Miss Lois Lundy and Miss Helen Mellow. Remember when silk and wool pullover sweaters were only $2.00 each and Ladies Tweed raincoats were $10.95. Serge and poplin skirts were $2.95. 35 YEARS AGO Thursday, August 4, 1949 The 18th annual Port Perry Businessmen's Sports Day was held at the Fair Grounds. oo The local bowling team of Leonard Leahy (skip) and Bruce Beare carried off the Hiram Walker trophy. The Scugog folks welcomed their new minister Rev. J.R. Bick of Bobcaygeon. Miss Marilyn Baird played a piano solo at the Women's Association regular monthly meeting. 25 YEARS AGO Thursday, August 13, 1959 Blackstock Street Carnival was a big success. The proceeds will go towards painting the buildings and fixing the grounds for the Blackstock Fair. Members of the Reach Councils Ex-Reeves, Township employees met at Dundrennan Farm to honour Mr. Grant Christie, retiring Clerk-Treasurer. Reeve Howard Mac- Millan was Master of Ceremonies. (Turn to page 6) remember when? # This post card photograph which shows KING BTRF i Miss Lexie Munro of Manchester. Photo King Street in Seagrave, Ontario was sentto courtesy Peter Fish. You Can't Please 'Em All It's extremely difficult, as any columnist knows, to please all of the people all of the time. In fact, if this column had done so, it would be extinct. Half my readers get somad at me that they can't wait to read the next column, so they can get madder. The other half sort of enjoys it, forgives my lapses and looks forward to what the silly twit is going to say next. In the last couple of weeks, I've had some letters from both sides. A Manitoba editor is thinking of cell- ing the column. Reason? "Too many columns dealing with personal matters." I quote bits from his letter: "While it is understandable that family members are dear to Bill Smiley ... I feel our readers might tire of how the are behaving. Once or twice a year would be sufficient." I should be so lucky. You are quite right, sir. Once or twice a year would be sufficient, for the grandboys' visit. And from Vancouver, a young mother writes to say "Keep on writing about your family and grandboys. 1 love these columns." The editor was fair. He added: "Columns, other than family-related, are good and have received favouralie conument from our fasats, A Thanks. I get letters from religious people accuse me of being the right-hand man of the Devil, when I jesting- ly remark that God must have been out to lunch when he was drawing up the menu for this year's winter. I get letters from other religious people who send me tracts and letters full of Biblical references, with the that I will print the lot. And 1 get letters from still other religious people, most clergy, who enjoy quibbling with me over a point but urge me to continue writing as I do, to make people But on the whole, it is not exactly a dog's life. I remember receiving a fairly vicious editorial blow from a weekly editor who said I wrote too much about teenagers, because I was a school teacher. I retorted with a bit of tongue in cheek. In high dudgeon, he cancelled the column. It's still going. I wonder if he's still the editor of that paper, deciding what his readers can read. (Had a number of letters from his subscribers supporting me, none supporting 2 I receive letters from places like Baker Lake, N.W.T., excoriating me for talking about the tough winters down here, which to them is almost the deep And I get a letter from my kid brother retired and living in Florida, with pictures of the house, flowers, pool and an outline of his day: coffee and paper, walk down the beach with the , etc. The swine. Wait till the Florida flies get to him in July and he wants to come north and visit for a month. No room at the Smiley Inn, little Smiley. On the whole, the letters I get are delightful. A typical example came in the other day from Bill Fran- cis, Moncton, N.B.He says such nice things about the column that I blush even to read them, and would never put them in print. But more to the point, his letter is witty, infor- mative, alive. He's no chicken, a WWI infantry private. I'll quote a bit. "Though obviously a man of sound common sense, I wonder how, in your youth, you got involved in flying a fighter plane, let alone risking combat in one. (Ed. note: me too!) I remember during those war years, wat- ching a young fellow land his old Avro Anson like a wounded pelican in the middle of our freight yard and walk away from the wreck looking a little sheepish. Soon after, and nearby, another boy flew his Harvard trainer at full speed into a grove of trees one foggy morning. He didn't walk away from that one." Speaking of education, he says he attended five dif- ferent schools and doesn't think much of today's bi schools. Of the new permissiveness: "Anti-socia behaviour today may be blamed on everything from sunspots to Grandpa's weakness for women and hard liquor, which all agree is a vast improvement on the old "A stra at school and another at home for being stra at school. His last school was graded "superior", because it taught to Grade 11. Equipment consisted of a tray of mineral specimens, the remains of a cheap chemistry set, and a leather strap, but managed to turn out a number of people who went into the professions. Bill Francis says: 'The school's rather good record was due not only to excellent instruction, but also to drawing, from a radius of five miles around, those whose eyes were fixed on distant goals and whose legs were equal to hoofing it back and forth. There was nothing wrong with my legs and I lived nearby." "Just a little light upstairs, they said; a handicap I've learned to live with." '"Now, some seventy years later and a little wiser, I have become just an old fellow round whom the wind blows in the laugh of the loon and the caw of the crows and the wind whistles by so drear and cold, in chilling disdain of ways that are old. But this feckless old fellow just putters around and heeds not the wind nor its desolate sound. Cares not a whit for what the winds say; just listens for the echoes of things far away." I think that is wise and honest and real. May I feel the same. I'll be in touch, Bill Francis, You're a literate man with some brains in your head. An unusual phenomenon. wy a en - a i a -- A