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"A Family Tradition for 132 Years" PORT PERRY STAR - Tuesday, July 13, 1999 - 7 eS The Poul Perey Stax ¥ (Question of the Week... What are your thoughts on last weekend's Festival Days event? [ thought it was very good. It's the first time I've been to the town when the festival is on and I thought it very dif- ferent, very good. I like it the way it is now. Do you have a suggestion that you think would make a good question of the week? Call us at 905-985-7383. Anne Higginbotham Sean Callanan It was wonderful to see so many young children tak- ing part; so many things for them to do. I think this IS a great encouragement for them to grow up in the proper manner. ¥ cua es Sarah Anderson It was a lot of fun, I really enjoyed it. The rides were good, but they are too expensive -- they want too many tickets for the rides. It was a fun time though. Lisa Rankin I think this is the cleanest Festival Days I've ever seen. The rides for the kids were good. This was definitely better than last year's. - Anna Fletcher - I had a good time this year; [ really enjoyed the rides and shopping at the sidewalk sales. But the prices were too high for the rides, they were way LOO expensive. LETTERS Creative landscaping will save parks Editor's To the Editor: You are right; parks are for people, not geese (Random Jottings, June 29). If we persist in having grass right down to the water's edge, however, the geese will come ashore and pollute. This is an excellent reason for covering the water edge with suf- ficient plant material that the geese cannot see what danger might be just behind the foliage. Since a goose is much shorter than a man, a low hedge row is sufficient. Variations on this idea could also be used to keep the geese from coming beyond the Palmer Park beach to the lawns, yet be low enough to allow par- ents to watch their children on the beach. Without walking access to the grass for the geese ... the major attraction is gone. They seldom fly in. The problem with the park to the north of the boat launch is not that it is overgrown. That park's problem is that shrubs and even trees meant for ornamental gardens were planted in naturalized areas. Without loving care they are struggling and often full of bugs. Our eye rebels at seeing them full of "weeds." Whereas with a native species, like a pussy willow for instance, it looks natural. In addition, the meadow areas are just what grew there on poor soil, and are mainly fall flowering species which don't look very interesting at the moment. The effect is compounded by a lack of shade trees. It is not really what I would call an 'environmen- tal' park. owever, there is no question that in cer- tain areas of that park there is interesting diversity. Take a camera and a field guide to native plants and birds and you will be rewarded with many surprises. What to some is a boring display, to others is relatively rich in variety. Take time as well to listen to the multitude of birds, frogs and crickets. What that park needs is just a little loving planting attention by some knowledgeable, caring towns people ... not just the under- staffed municipal parks crew. Barbara Karthein, Scugog Island Remember ® This photo of Crosier's store, (orginally known as Christian's) in Manchester, was taken ~ circa 1920. The store was located on the southwest corner of Hwy. 12 and Regionat-Rd. 21 in the village of Manchester. If you have any old photos of Scugog's town's or villages that we could use in Remember When, give Peter a call at the Port Perry Star: 985-7383. Notepad by Jeff Mitchell DRIVEN TO DISTRACTION In the absence of any real issues, news or interesting meteo- rological events to discuss -- this being summer, and summer being the silly season, and also a time during which any columnist with a brain in his head goes on vacation or hiatus or just a three-day bender in Montreal with a stripper named Misty -- | thought maybe we'd talk about cars. | got to thinking about cars because just a few hours ago | was sitting at the traffic light at the intersection of 7A and Simcoe St. when up beside me pulled a massive old Ford Thunderbird with a huge dent where the passenger door met the body. There's no way that door was ever going to open again, meaning a passenger had to either - a) slide across the driver's seat to the passenger side, or b) climb through the window. on The second option was the one | chose most often for the 1978 gold Camaro | bought for $1,200 and drove with such pride until the fateful day when, late for work, | was barreling down Davis Drive in Newmarket on my way to Uxbridge and came into sudden, jarring collision with the front end of a Jimmy, driven by a guy who was tired of waiting for the light and decided to take a U-turn and, presumably, go back to where he'd come from and start all over again. : | tore the front bumper clean off the Jimmy and, to my horror, smashed the driver's side door of the Camaro with such force that it would be forever welded to the body. So it was that | became something of a Steve' McQueen-Batman-Jimmy Olson character, criss-crossing the countryside to cover assignments and then bolting from each scene, jumping through the window of the damaged Camaro, and blasting off in a cloud of dust, gravel and cigarette butts. ...Until the camshaft went. After that the car didn't have a whole lot of pick-up, so | would accordingly saunter from the scene, climb through the window of the car, back it out slowly, and then creep off. Until the transmission fell out, which meant reverse was ho longer an option. So that required a lot of strategic parking, let me tell you. | would thereafter generally sneak out of an event shortly before its conclusion, slither through the window, and send the car limping from the lot, unless someone had parked in front of me. Until the brakes went. Their screeching was so hideous -- and my resources so tapped from a series of previous repairs which had, apparently, rendered the vehicle even more decrepit -- that | eventually refused to drive the car. | went to a GM deal- ership and bought a Sprint. Whatever became of the Camaro | cannot say for sure. | never went to get it from the place it chose for its final breakdown. Maybe we'll meet again some day. But | hope not.