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- --------------- a ---- ---------------------------- ---- ' Y, SPY be 6 - PORT PERRY STAR - Tuesday, January 7, 1992 "Scugog's Community Newspaper of Choice" The Port Perry Star is authorized as second class mail by the includes $2.10GST includes $1.22GST includes $5.95GST: s Co-ordinator - Kelly Lown Post Office Department, Ottawa, for cash payment of postage. ADVERTISING | Second Class Mail Registration Number 0265 + Advertising Manager - Anna Jackman PRODUCTION ! Subscription Rate: . Advertising Sales-JackieMetz * 1Year-$32.10 6Months:$18.72 Forelgn-$90.95 Production - Pamela Hickey, Barbara Bell BUSINESS OFFICE The Port Perry Star : gOomAL fat Hvidsten Office Manager - Gayle Stapley | |' 188 MARY STREET - PORT PERRY, ONTARIO - LoL 187 \lews Editor - Scott Anderson Acgounting - Judy Ashby i ; an a atures Editor - Julia Dempsey Billing Department - Louise Hope PHONE 985-7363 FAX 985-3708 Retail Sales - Kathy Dudley, Lynda Ruhl - Annabell Harrison, Trudy Empringham Published every Tuesday by the Robert Taylor, Marlene Moore CL (-, ¥Cha [fi | Member of the Canadian Community Newspaper Association Ontario Community Newspaper Association Port Perry Star Co. Ltd. Port Perry, Ontario * GST included in price 3 Editorial | Comment | "Guarded Optimism Ask Canadians if they expect 1992 to be a better year. than 1991, and almost half will answer yes. That's according to a poll taken by Gallup. The survey asked "Will this year be better than last year? A total of 47 per cent of those polled said they believed 1992 would be a better year than last year. Another 24 per cent said they believed 1992 would be similar to 1991, while 26 per cent predicted it will be worse. The same poll conducted last year found only 18 per cent expected 1991 to be better than 1990. Although only 47 per cent of the Canadians said they be- lieved that 1992 was going to be a better year than 1991, we were still one of the more optimistic countries surveyed, Both the United States and Argentina were the leaders in optimism with 61 per cent saying 1992 was going to be a better year than 1991. Israel came in second with 54 per cent looking for a better year, while 54 per cent of those surveyed in Australia look for a good 1992. At the opposite end of the spectrum is Hungary, where only seven per cent of those surveyed said they believed this year would be better than last year. In Czechoslovakia, 10 per cent said the coming year was going to be better, and in Aus- tria, only 19 per cent were feeling optimistic. So why the optimism? Why are almost half of the Canadi- ans surveyed hoping for a better year this year than last year? A quick review of the past tells the story. More than 10 per cent of the work force were out of work last year, with the' numbers steadily rising. An additional seven per cent tax was slapped on almost everything we purchased, and many stores announced they were shutting down. Durham politicians are divided on what the year will look like. Gord Mills, Durham East MPP, says it's going to be a tough year as there won't be much in the way of government money available. Mr. Mills says that we should push for zero increases in everything, including the wages of public employ- ees. Township of Scugog's mayor Howard Hall was equally as bleak when painting the picture for the year. "It's going to be a different year than we have ever experienced before," he said. Later in an interview he said "It's going to be a bad year." Mayor Hall believes the first four months of this year will make it or break it for a lot of retailers and businesses in the area. He says if they can keep their heads above the water for the first quarter then things will show signs of an improvement. Politicians at all levels are echoing the feelings which our local representatives expressed recently. None see the near future as something to look forward to, and many say things must get worse before it can get better. But how much worse can we go? One in 10 workers are out of work, people have very little disposable money and what little money they do have they are spending cautiously. Consumer confidence is at an all time low. Perhaps Mr. Mills had the right idea when he suggested that we strive for "zero increases" on everything, but is this re- alistic? There are some things that we accept have to go up in price, some necessities that we must pay a little more for, but at the same time there are things that aren't needed. Over the next year, or at least until we see some improve- ment in the economy, we should all take a close look at our spending practices. Transfer payments from the various levels of government will not be as plentiful, and what money we do get will have to go to priority one projects. Frivolous projects will have to be put off until times are better. Governments must prove to the citizens that they are ded- icated to seeing us through the bad times, and are working to- wards pulling us out of this thing. But the onus cannot be placed totally on the governments. It is up to us to help as well. Our wish lists can be shortened a little bit, our expecta- tions can be lowered slightly during these bad times, and some projects can be delayed for better times. After all when money is scarce and governments must find money it is our services that are reduced first. Perhaps the best suggestion for the upcoming year came from Mr. Mills. "We must join together and work together to rE EEE a EEE BEAR IR EL BEE BE BE JE - TPE EL EE EEA dad = "AW, BEAUTIFUL. LAKE SCuaog IN WE WinreR--. Ts A BeAuTiFuL PAY FOX A FAMILY SKATE. THE HOMEWRECKER After threatening for months, and thinking about it for years, we finally did it! We got rid of our TV. Quite honesty, we weren't committed enough to dispose of "the tube™ entirely, but we dide te it from our family room where it had become too convenient and easy to flip on any time we had a spare moment to waste. , T.V., the homewrecker of the 90s, no longer occupies a space in our family room. That big black bax, which took up valuable space in our crowded bookcase, became a curse, being the most used appliance in our house over the past couple of years and we decided on New Years morning.... enough is enough!! The decision was not made in haste, under stress or the influence of a hangover, the result of a wild New Years Eve party. It was a sane, foliieny decision made over a steaming hot cup of coffee, with three kids whining because it was 7 a.m. and we wouldn't let them turn the TV on. The tears started flowing when we told them to go and play with their toys and they ran screaming into the next room saying we weren't being fair. We quickly came to the conclusion they depend so much on TV for their entertain- ment, they're forgetting how to play and use their imagination. Hence the bold move to dispose of the TV from our daily and hourly sight. It was a long climb up two flights of stairs to the attic loft. It's an area we built shortly after the twins arrived so our eldest daughters would have a place to call their own when they visited. The loft never did get a lot of use, but now with the TV and VCR relocated there, we expect it to see a little more traffic. In addition to getting rid of the TV, we were also able to rid ourselves of the dozens of kids videos we have acquired since the arrival of Mall almost seven years ago. We've accumulated almost all the Disney classics, Sesame Street tapes, Kids Songs, Elephant Show, Raffi, cartoons, Turtles, Super- man and the list goes on. Then there were the movies and p taped off the tube, and movies we bought at bargain prices, thinking someday we'd watch them again. We never did! : All those videos and video jackets piled high on the top of the shelves, the fireplace and TV are gone. No longer do we have to.pick them up from the floor in t every room of the house, as the kids carried them around like objects of worship. We've sanitized our home, gnd now hope we can get the kids to start playingX¥ogether and interacting like a family again. We plan to spend more time at the kitchen table (no, not filling our faces), doing things together. Playing board games, coloring, reading, talking or whatever comes to mind. I'm sure the first couple of weeks will be diffi- cult, especially for Nancy who has to contend with the kids all day, but we are hopeful in the long run the family will bond and become a close knit unit. As I said at the outset of this column, we haven't removed TV from our house, but have made it less accessible. Our main set located on the third floor (getting to it is great for the cardio vascular system), there's an old beat-up portable with Nintendo attached in Matt's room and anci- ent (maybe antique) Philp's TV bought from House of Howard in 1976 located in the unfin- ished portion of our basement. So now when Nancy and 1 decide to watch L.A. Law, 60 Minutes, 20/20 or The National, we'll have to start preparations five minutes earli- er so we can get our snacks ready, ascend the stairs and get settled before our program starts. I just hope we can agree on which program we want to watch, use I know whose going to end up in the cold basement if our view pleasures differ. The greatest advantage of the TV being so far from the main floor is the distance to the refrig- erator. This is bound to help my waistline as I worn a path to the kitchen over the years, jump- ing up whenever a commercial interrupts pro- gramming to raid the refrigerator . Now I'm going to have to think twice before descending two flights of stairs to fill a craving and then hike all the way back upstairs to my comfortable perch. I hope this works, because I don't think my back will stand up to me carrying the TV set back down that long flight of stairs. ------