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

ree Yesterday's Memories 60 YEARS AGO Thursday, March 11, 1926 : Mr. and Mrs. Joel Miller brought water to the Claughton farm at Epsom. 35 YEARS AGO * oe Thursday, March 8, 1951 ~~ Andy Anderson of Port Perry will be the guest speaker at the Oshawa Garden Club this week. " Congratulations to Norma Levinson and Donna Samells in their high standing at the Kiwanis Music Festival held in Toronto this 'week. Norma had 81 marks and Donna 82, both are pupils of Florence McClintoch. 25 YEARS AGO Thursday, March 9, 1951 Guide Margaret-Anne Witherspoon received her Gold Cord in the Church of Ascension. At the ceremony the colours were presented by Eunice Roach and Karen Mark, assisted by Susanne MacMaster, Gerri Cooper, Beverley Dymond and Jerry Dagenias. Mrs. Ruby Roach, District Commissioner of Scugog acted as master of ceremonies. Port Perry Arena had a new time clock installed this week. Floyd James of Port Perry was among the finalist for the A.C. Neish prize offered by Kingston section of the Chemical Institute of Canada. Members of the Royal Canadian Legion Br. 419 enjoyed a Dart Tournament with the winners being; 1st Clare Nightengale, 2nd A. Brown and 3rd M. Stone. 20 YEARS AGO Thursday, March 10, 1966 Officer Cadet James H. Carnegie of Port Perry, son of Mr. and Mrs. W.J. Carnegie, has successfully completed the Basic Air Crew Indoctrination Course at-RCAF Station, Centralia. More advance training as a pilot will be undertaken at Flying Schools at Gimli, Manitoba and Moose Jaw, Sask. "Mr. Lloyd Wilson of R.R.1, Ashburn, was elected president of the Ontario Hog Producers Association. 10 YEARS AGO : Wednesday, March 10, 1976 . Faulty electrical wiring started a fire which caused $25,000 damage to the home of Christopher Gray, R.R.4, Port Perry. The fire kept firemen busy from 3:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. and then no sooner did they get back to the hall, and they had to return because flames erupted again. 3 Leslie Forder of Port Perry has placed first in the Royal Cana- dian Legion's Public Speaking Contest held in Uxbridge. Leslie now goes to district competition being held in Lindsay. At a meeting of the Scugog Chamber of Commerce, Richard . Drew was elected to another term as president, with Cliff Crowell, 1st vice-president and John Williams elected 2nd vice-president. Paul Arculus was elected as president of the Scugog Ratepayers Association, taking over from Bev Muir. Others elected to the ex- ecutive are: Eric Carre, vice-president, Nancy Wiliams, secretary; and Sharon Cawker, treasurer. PORT PERRY STAR -- Tuesday, March 11, 1986 -- § Letters Believes hunting dogs stolen Dear Sir: Since carly in January, I have lost three hounds and I have reason to believe they were stolen. The first one disappeared the second week of January and the othér two in the first week of March. The first one was about three miles south of Port Perry and was last seen at the pump-house on the The number of clients for work at the Canada Employ- ment Centres in Ajax, Whitby and Oshawa for the month of February totalled 6,343 which compares to 8,550 registrations during January 1986 and 14,513 registrations during February 1985. Placements in the three offices totalled 869 for the month, which compares to a total of 361 placements during January 1986 and 522 placements during February 1985. During February, the greatest - employment opportunities existed in Manufacturing Motor Vehicles; Construction; Retail Trade; Business Services; Health and Social Services; and Food and Beverage. At the end of February, there were 55 students in the skill course Oshawa Road. The other two were last seen about one mile south and one mile east of Blackstock. - , left a dog house on the side of the road for shelter in case the dogs returned. I returned to check the dog house that same night about 6:00 P.M., and again the following morning. The dogs had not return- ed, but somebody had taken the dog 'Jobless rate falls sponsored by the Canada Employ- ment Centre and 254 people receiv- ing academic upgrading at Durham College. to the editor. While we enjoy receiving letters from our readers, we must continue to insist on knowing the identity of the writer. = ' Letters to the Editor ... our policy It has always been the policy of this newspaper to encourage our readers to make use of the letters to the editor column. Our readers have a right to freely points on just about any subject; and we feel that a lively letters column helps make a better community newspaper. We insist, however, that a letter writer sign his or her name. On rare occasions, we will agree to with-hold publication of a letter writer's name, if we feel there are very good reasons to do so. Under no circumstances will this paper print an anonymous letter house away. The dog house had my name painted on the top. The dogs have 1% inch collars with name plates and my phone number. They are tatooed in the ear and are mostly black and white in colour with brown around the face. How could anybod;' be so cheap to do such a thing? I am offering a reward for any information about my dogs. Other hunters should beware if they are running their dogs in these areas. Yours truly, Thomas Horton, Blackstock. express their opinions and view- Our federal government is taking a long look at COMMENT by J.B. McClelland ning coffee besides this damn weather. Letters The health care issue Dear Sir: : The OMA is attempting to cloud the extra-billing issue with groundless rheteric about "Freedom." The bottom line in this. debate is money. They know it, and: we, the patients, know it. Where did the doctors ever derive the notion they were so special, they did not have to conform to some sort of fee guideline? Murray Elson is BELVEDERE quite correct when he states that the OMA, by fighting this principle, is fighting the people of Ontario. Equal access to health care is the right of all, and outweighs the greed of a minority of physicians. Yours truly, Ronald J. Gilbert R.R. 1, Ashburn, Ontario by George Crenshaw ip - oSFoRely a | "AND WHAT, MAY T ASK. WAS WRONG WITH THE OLD SIGN?" whether women should be allowed combat roles with the Armed Forces in the event this country ever finds itself in a "hot war" situation. I think it's a heck of an idea. In this day and age _of total equality between the sexes, there is no reason under the sun why women can't fly fighter ~ aircraft, pilot a tank or man (oops, woman) an artillery battery. History documents many instances where women fought alongside men in the fields of bat- tle. In some societies, women proved superior to the males when it came to the craft of warring. And I personally know several members of the female gender who are just as capable of sliding -a bayonet through the ribs of any man. So, what's all the fuss about? I wonder how much of a priority this issue should occupy with the Canadian Forces. It may be important, but to my mind, of far more importance is the overall condition of the army, navy and air force. We keep hearing these stories that Canada would be hard- pressed to defend our soil if Switzerland invaded, never find a few divisions of battle-hardened Rus- sians fresh from the Afghanistan front. Seriously, the Canadian Armed Forces have enough problems without this one. And let's face it, putting women in front line combat roles is a nifty idea in theory. In practise, it will lead to a great many difficulties. I'd much prefer to see the Armed Forces putting its time, money and energy into improving the combat capability of what's already there. But in the long run, isn't this issue nothing more than just an academic exercise? I wonder what the chances are that Canada will ever be involv- ed again in a shooting war using conventional weapons. Pretty slim, really. The next time this country goes to war, it probably won't matter whether women or men are on the front lines. The whole thing will be over in a matter of hours, maybe minutes. Still, the issue of women in combat roles keeps the politicians busy up there in Ottawa, and it pro- vides grist for Jolitical commentary. Heck, about this time of year, Canadians start to look for something to yack about over their mor- So, why not this issue? Or whether homosexuals should be permitted to join the RCMP. These are major topics of supreme national importance, ranking right up there with the on-going about the future of the Senate, Mila's wardrobe, and John Crosbie's fractured use of the King's English. : Canadians seem to have this curious ability to make giant issues out of things that really should get little more than a passing comment. Probably because Canada has not faced a crisis of true national proportions in a least a genera- tion, we seem happy only when we manufacture a whole series of little crisis and elevate them to lofty proportions. It has become a part of our national heritage to quibble and argue over the darndest things. Look at the torrid debate now raging in Ontario over whether physicians should have the right to - extra-bill patients. The name-calling, the protests, the ugly feelings and so on are really unfortunate. It seems incredible that the provincial govern- ment is spending so much time and energy on this issue. : Is putting the clamps on doctors outside the OHIP system going to be Premier Peterson's main claim to fame as head honcho of Canada's largest province? You'd think the guy would have more important things to do. - I'll tell you what the government should be do- ing. It should be coming up with ways to put more money into the overall Ith care system -- equipment, hospitals, labs and so on. That's where the problems are; not with a small minority of doctors who want to operate outside the OHIP system. . Or how about the condition of highways in province. I had to travel to Ottawa Va t week and I can tell you there are many miles of highway between here and there that aren't fit for horse and wagon, let alone an automobile. I guess what's really bugging me about the way governments are doing things these days, is that they seem to get caught up in non-issues that they should never get involved with in the first place. While the important things are left unattended. debate .