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"A Family Tradition for 132 Years" The Pout Povey Stag Question of the Week... How is business so far this Holiday Season? Do you have a suggestion that you think would make a good question of the week? Call us at 905-985-7383. Tracey Strong FRAMER'S GALLERY We're having a great season so far; it'll be our best ever if it stays the same. The weather is good and people don't want to walk in malls, so they come here. Pam Henshall | HENSHALL'S It's been very festive this year; there's been so much to do. You don't realize how good life is until something bad happens. This makes it all right. Life is good. Santa Claus NORTH POLE Port Perry has been very, very busy this year. I see people from all over wan- dering the streets and shop- ping here. It's another good year for Port Perry. Alissa Smith OCALA ORCHARDS Things are going very well for us. This is our busy time of year -- fall to Christmas season. This is a busy time for both production and retail. Marilyn Youmans EVERLASTING MEMORIES It's a pretty slow time for us right now. It is sort of the off-season but we're expecting things to pickup again beginning in January. Canvassing effort was a success LETTERS To the Editor: On behalf of The Lung Association Durham Region I am happy to report that our first annual door to door canvass of Port Perry was a success. -# Thanks to the hard work of our 19 canvassers we have raised approximately $2,500 to date. I would like to thank the citizens of Port Perry for their generosity. The funds will be used to help the citizens of the Port Perry area who are living with the affects of lung disease. One in five Canadians is afflicted with lung disease and The Lung Association is able to provide information, education and medical research, thanks to public support like yours. I would like to wish the residents of Port Perry a happy and safe holiday season and thank you for remembering "When You Can't Breathe, Nothing Else Matters." Janet Georgieff, Executive Director Keep those Healey columns coming To the Editor: Though not an avid sports fan, I have been enjoying Todd Healey's column, especially the one from two weeks ago. He makes an excellent point about young people taking the initiative towards getting a skateboard park built. His ideas are, like, sort of, like, you know, like, good. I'd also like to say I loved the article on Todd's trials as a catcher during his growing- up years. He mentions that his older brother Mike was a catcher, but should be reminded his sister Faye was also a catcher for a number of years. I may be mistaken, but I believe his sister Pat may have played that position for a while too. Please tell Todd to keep up the good work. I may be biased, but the articles are getting better and better. Sandra (Healey) Smith, Prince Albert by Jeff Mitchell MORE JA PEOPLE, LESS BING HAD ENOUGH YET? ...1t didn't take long. It was Thursday morning when the phone rang, and the woman calling in announced, "Got a good Question of the Week for you." "Yes," said The Editor, "and that is?" "Does Christmas music played in stores inspire you to buy more..." "Or just drive you nuts?" The Editor concluded. "You got it," she said firmly. Remember, this call came on Dec 3. Christmas is still weeks away. There's not even snow on the ground. And already consumers are being driven to distraction by hokey renditions of Silver Bells and Frosty the Snowman. It's true: We are experiencing our annual inun- dation of Yuletide ditties, and the reaction, more often than not, is to grit our teeth and hunch our shoulders, rather than sigh dreamily and think back on snowy evenings spent by the crackling hearth. Crackling hearth? Forget it. We're driven from our family rooms the instant someone turns on the television and that doddering old fool in spectacles reminds us to Give Like Santa and Save Like Scrooge. Maybe another visit from Jacob Marley would set him straight: "Scrooge... Scroooooge! You're overdoing it! Knock it off! Keep Christmas quietly!" Or maybe we just need a visit from Bob Marley... or, at least, his musical descendants. A little while ago | was visiting some friends as they worked on their float for the Santa Claus parade, and I've got to say | enjoyed their Reggae Christmas CD a lot more than | would have hearing Perry Como or Bing Crosby, or any of those other corpses... living or dead. Yeah... We Wish You A Merry Christmas, Mon. At any rate, hang in there, consumers. As of this publi- cation date there are 17 days until Christmas, all of them shopping days in the age of on-line credit, and the end is in sight. Try to enjoy yourself a little. That's no problem for me, because | do virtually all of my shopping at two places: Toys R Us, and the liquor store. If you can't be made relatively happy by gifts from either of those places, you're just not on my list. And if you do the majority of your shopping right here in town, you can avoid the mall drones -- my, but they do tend to stumble along blindly, like sick cattle, don't they? -- and, for the most part, piped-in Christmas music. And | can rest easy knowing that if there's any problem -- "Just what were you thinking when you bought this, buster?" -- exchanges are no sweat. Say... have you ordered your turkey yet?