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Yesterday's Memories 60 YEARS AGO Thursday, January 21, 1926 The annual meeting of Port Perry, Reach and Scugog Agricultural Society elected the following officers: R.M. Holtby, Hon. Pres., Lawson Honey, Pres., Grant Christie, first Vice-Pres., John Sutherland, 2nd Vice-Pres., James Lee, 3rd Vice-Pres. The inauguration of council members of Reach Township took place on January 11, and the following elected members will form the 1926 council; D. McDonald, reeve; W.F. Thompson, deputy- reeve;, George Till, Grant Christie and J. Stewart McFarlane, councillors. Mr. James Gallagher was injured when he was knocked off the top of a hay load he was drivirg to his home on Rosa Street. a low hanging tree branch which Mr. Gallagher didn't notice brushed him _ off the load and dumped him onto the street. Wm. Parr riding with him managed to duck and avoid the branch. 35 YEARS AGO Thursday, January 18, 1951 Ontario Premier Leslie Frost officially opened Port Perry Com- munity Memorial Centre Friday last week. In his opening remarks Mr. Frost congratulated warmly and sincerely the fine community spirit and co-operation by the people of Port Perry, Reach and Scugog. He also presented a cheque in the amount of $1,000.00, the last instalment of a provincial grant. It required four ballots to have Ferguson Munro elected Warden of Ontario County at the Inaugural meeting. Others seeking the posi- tion were Ernest Camick, Rama Township reeve; Isaa¢ Catherwood, Uxbridge Township reeve; Thomas Harding, Thorah Township - reeve; and Duncan McIntyre, Whitby reeve. Joan Venning, Blackstock, the winner of Port Perry Lions Club oratorical contest delivered her winning speech at the regular Lions Club meeting. : 25 YEARS AGO Thursday, January 19, 1961 Scugog Township reeve Anson Gerrow was elected Warden of Ontarig County on the third ballot with 23 votes against 16 for Picker- ing Township reeve, Mr. Scott. Sharon Cummings of 'Epsom was injured and taken to the Com- munity Memorial Hospital following an accident at Honey's Corner. The car went out of control, ripped down about 100 feet of fencing and came to rest in a field, The owner of the car, Bob Otis of Toron- to, escaped injury, but the car was heavily damaged. Central Ontario High School Board paid a well deserved tribute * to Mr. Norman Alexander for 35 years of service to the Board, 25 of them as secretary-treasurer. Sheriff George A. Welsh of Ontario County was elected president of Ontario Association of Sheriffs. 20. YEARS AGO Thursday, January 20, 1966 : The home of Mr. and Mrs. Albert Bonnell, Prince Albert was totally destroyed by fire Sunday at 6 p.m. Mr. and Mrs. Bonnell were away at the time and their furniture and belongings valued at $4,500 (Turn to page 11) FN PORT PERRY STAR -- Tuesday, January 21, 1986 -- § Letters Dear Sir: I must challenge the article, "Doctors and OHIP' by John McClelland in January 14's Chatterbox. First I would like to point out that we are very lucky in this area not to be faced, as far as I know; with opted-out doctors. But I have personally talked to people who felt they could not go for 'sugggested medical treatment because of inability to pay. And I have heard of others. I know there is restricted access to care of many Dear Sir: With the current controversy regarding the "Health Care Ac- cessibility Act, 1985", I feel that your readers deserve a medical opi- nion. Although this is a personal viewpoint, I believe that most of my collegues' feelings are similar. On passage of this act, the OMA fee schedule upon which the OHIP benefits have been calculated will become illegal. Although the OMA fee schedule has increased over the - past years along with other in- creases in wages and prices, the OHIP benefits have decreased from 90 per cent to about 70 per cent of the OMA schedule. In spite of this relative decrease, 88 per cent of the physicians have elected to accept OHIP's 70 per cent as full payment during times of inflation and economic difficulty. (The remaining 12 per cent have opted to bill the full amount of their rightful fee). If 88 per cent of the physicians, including those in Port Perry, bill no extra, and therefore will lose no income with the change, then why are they angry? 3 I believe there are two main reasons. One is that 'lack of' ac- cessibility to the health care system is being blamed on the doctors and "extra" (ie full) billing. The second, specialists in many communities. John McClelland talked about principle. The most important prin- ciple at stake is universal access to tlie health care system regardless of ability to pay. Extra-billing is con- trary to that principle. All provinces except Alberta, New Brunswick and Ontario have passed legislation ban- ning extra-billing. The federal governinent penalizes provinces that allow this practice. We, in On- tario, are losing 50 million dollars a year that could be used to improve, our health care system. 'OHIP: A Physician's view and the most important, is the feel- ing that basic personal freedom in the practice of one's profession are being taken away. Firstly, I believe that very few of our patients have not been able to get necessary care due to physicians Extra-billing should be banned It is not the government but the Ontario Medical Association itself that is largely responsible for the OHIP fee schedule not rewarding skill. The OHIP schedule was adopted directly from the OMA schedule in 1971. The 'Health Minister has said he is prepared to negotiate an OHIP fee schedule which recognizes years of ex- perience and/or skills. Are we really sure that freedom of practice exists in the United States? According to Toronto physi- cian, Michale Rachlis, a spokesman for the Medical Reform Group of Ontario, 30 percent of physicians in the U.S. are employees of large cor- porations. - "They are sometimes "told how many lab tests to order and when their patients should leave hospital." (Toronto Star, January 7, 1986). I agree with John McClelland that we have problems with the health system in Ontario. I, for one, would like to see a system that pays much (Turn to page 6) (Turn to page 6) BELVEDERE by George Crenshaw |B SWE ALL TRY TO OVERLOOK HIS TWISTED SENSE OF HUMOR." THE WORLD OF Eo Vad >, Bill Smiley WHO'S FOR LASTEMBER? January is a trying time. For one thing, it's so dang sudden. There you are, tottering along a day at a time, thinking you must get the snow tires and storms on one of these Saturdays, and throw some firewood into the cellar, and get some boots and replace the gloves you lost last March. And then -- bang! ---- you look out one morning, _ and there's January, in all its unglory : a bitter east wind driving snow, and a cold chill settles in the'very bones of your soul. Winter winds as sharp as a witch's tooth sneaks in around uncaulked doors and windows. There's a terri- ble draught from under the basement door. You in- vestigate and find one of the basement windows has been blown in and smashed on the woodpile. You clamber up over the wood, knocking pieces off shins and knuckles, and jam some cardboard in the gap. Creep cautiously outside and nearly bust your bum. There's ice under that thar snow. Make it to the garage, and find that your car doors are all frozen solid shut. Beat them with your bare fists until the latter are bleeding and your car is full of dents. Finally get them open with a bucket of hot water and a barrel of hotter language. Slither and grease your way to work, arriving in a foul mood and with bare hands crippled into claws, bootless feet cold as a witch's other appendage. Come out of work to go home and find a half -inch of frozen rain and snow covering your car, and no sign of your scraper, and another deep dent where some idiot slid into your car door on the parking lot. I could go on and on, but it's only rubbing salt into the wounds of the average Canadian. Get home from work and find that the furnace is on the blink, and the repairman is tied up for the next two days. Surely there is some way around this suddeness of January. Is there not some far-seeing politician (if that "is not a contradiction in terms), who would introduce a bill to provide an extra month between, let's say November 25 and December 5? I wouldn't care what he called it. It could be Lastember, referring to your fast-dying hope that there wouldn't be a winter this year. Or Last Call, or Final Warning, or She's Acomin! Anything that gave us a good jolt. | It would be a good thing for merchants. They could have special Lastember sales of gloves and boots and snow tires and ear muffs and caulking guns and weather stripping and anti-freeze and nose warmers. It would be great for the Post Office, which could start warning us in June that all Christmas mail must be posted by the first day of Lastember if we wanted it delivered before the following June. It would make a nice talking point for all those deserters and traitors and rich people who go south every year. Instead of smirking, "Oh, we're not going south until Boxing Day. Hate to miss an old-fashioned Canadian Christmas," they could really shove it to us by learing, "Yes, we thought we'd wait this year until the last day of Lastember, you know. Avoid the pushing and vulgarity of the holiday rush." If nothing else, it would give us a break from the massive nauseating volume of pre-Christmas advertis- ing, which begins toward the end of October, and con- tinues remorselessly, right into Christmas Day. ~~ Best of all, perhaps it would give dummies like me a chance to avoid looking like such a dummy. Pro- crastinators, who flourish during a sunny November, would have no more excuses. All their wives would have to do is point to the calendar and say: "Do you realize it's only three days until Lastember. Isn't it time you did your Lastember chores?' . In fact, if that fearless politician who is going to in- troduce the Lastember Bill in the house wants some ad- vice, here is a codicil for him. Somewhere in the Bill should be the warning, in bold type: "Procrastinators will be Prosecuted!" Jeez, why not? They prosecute you for everything else! If such a month were added to the calendar ---- maybe we could start it with Grey Cup Day ---- people like me wouldn't go on thinking that Christmas is weeks away. Instead, on the last day of Lastember, with all their winter chores in hand, they'd know that Christmas was practically on top of them, like a big, old horse blanket, and they'd leap into the proper spirit, lining up a Christmas tree, laying in their booze, tuning up their pipes for the carols. seers -- As it is now, we know that Christmas is like a mirage. It's way off their somewhere, and no need to panic. Then, with that startling Suddeness, it's December 22, all the Christmas trees have been bought, the only remaining turkeys look like vultures, and the liquor store is bedlam. Who's for a Lastember?