a Acton Press Wednesday September 1970 Going back to school could be a traumatic experience but It Ian It a Bad to see the summer go and all those things you were going to do not done But there a a certain excitement as we step Into Sep tembcr surely the finest month of the year In this country It Is certainly not a sad occasion for mothers of young children Most of them heave a sigh of relief right down to their sandals at the thought of school opening Children are wonderful creatures hut like booze they should bo taken In small doses In summer they are constantly wanting to eat do something dangerous or fight with their brothers and sisters A young mother nerves are tough but can be stretched only so far Even more grateful for our educational system are the parents of all those teenagers who didnt have a Job this sum Mostofthem even those who complain bitterly about high education taxes could kiss the minister of education on both checks For deapiteallihewonderful things to do in summer there is nothing more bored than a teenager of either sex just hanging home I can t blame them much get bored silly myself Just hanging around home And adolescence makes it even more frustrating because the body Is full of beans not meant for sitting In a Inwnchalr reading a book But the pattern goes something like this Sleep till noon or later Get up after the lunch dishes are done and make a shambles of the kitchen reparlng a messy hamburgor Leave mess for Mom Demand why there a clean shirt Slouch to the streets or the park or hitchhike to the beach Sit around and rap with a gang of other bored teenagers Ifdinnerlsatsix bo sure to get homo at either five or seven and demand to be fed Immediately Then spend an hour In the bathroom fancying up and drift to stay out half the night muttering vaguely that you don know where you re going or when you bo home This of course after borrowing in plaintive tones a little something from Ihe old man With exceptions this is how it goes It demoralizing for all parties And it one reason even teenagers are glad to got back to school and Ihelr parents arc not glad bul ecstatic Then there a tho business of clothes for school Utile kids are sent clean and shining in fairly conventional apparel Big kids utile every Inch of the way Big boys t so bad though even they are showing peacock tendencies It a the big girls who cause the trouble After a summer in shorts and Jeans sweatshirt and bare feet they arc exceeding loath to don dresses and skirls and shoes So they do the next best thing battle their mothers over every Item of and demand something exotic a buckskin Jacket a prayer shawl a micro or skirt a sec through blouse However re back at school the kids enjoy it tor a while They discuss Ihelr summer romances immediately begin now ones They brag about the wild times hey had They positively swagger If they hitchhiked to Vancouver They swiftly assess new teachers try to drive them up the wall They groan with exaggerated dismay when they find out that Old So will be teaching them this year And how do the teachers feel Most of them are glad to got back to work They re broke or they re sick of muddling around with their families or they want to what kind of ratten time table they have thin year or they Just plain love teaching Hope for house owners buyers There Is some hope for a solution to the housing shortage In the announcement last week from the Hon Darcy at the Ontario Municipal Association convention that the Ontario government will Implement uniform building standards In the province as soon as possible It Is also a victory for Halton P P Jim Snow the genial giant who advocated the government adopt uniform building standards In March of Among the benefits the provincial government hopes will accrue from their fresh look at an old problem is that builders technology will be more capable of producing buildings of ar and functional quality In mass volume as a result of the uniform standard In laymen language It looks like the government Is saying builders will be able to produce houses on an assembly line basis which should be easy to look at and cheaper to buy than the inflation priced living quarters now being built All very commendable Coupled with the announcement that a report has recommended that a moratorium on tax increases caused by residential property Improvements be Imposed and you have two pretty good pieces of news for prospective and home owners The recommendation for a moratorium calls for new provincial initiatives In assisting owners and tenants to Improve their properties Citing the maintenance of property as an important aspect of environmental control the report also says the best way of counteracting this concern and provide en couragement to owners is to In an explicit exemption for improvements for a limited period of time This exemption could be achieved the report suggests by a moratorium on due to property Improvements could cover a five year period with a limit of of assessment on any single property at any one time In layman s language It looks like the report recommends a house owner who wants to put on an addition or otherwise brighten up his dwelling would be tax exempt on the improvements for five years which should give him a chance to pay for the ob without being busted by taxes Also recommended In the report Is a system of On Government loans built on a sliding Interest rate geared to income for those people who cannot afford normal Interest rates In instances where the owner or tenant can handle regular In rates the report urged the government to help make the necessary loans available through normal lending Institutions The Interest rate for the former would be determined by a formula similar to that used in establishing rentals for public housing tenants Although the government has been content to Ignore the problems of housing in the private sector for many years it looks at last as If they are at last concerned about the maintenance ot a vital environment Slums rural or urban are created In private housing sector when home owners can no longer afford to keep up their properties either through Inability to raise the money or the realization that improvements will only raise taxes they can III afford to pay We would agree that the most Important factor In encouraging people to look after their property Is the confidence they feel In its future the report says and in the continuing attractiveness of the area Poor construction neglect unsightly and unsanitary con dltlons take years to rectify so the objective must be to reinforce the efforts of the ordinary Individual to look after his own property Another recommendation which needs more than hasty scrutiny by the government is one to create a FIELDS OF GOLDEN GRAIN dot Halton sight today This used to be the handiest way to keep tryslde There Is still an abundance of agriculture In grain until It was ready to be taken to a stationary despite growing speculation and growth of Ihresher Now giant combines move through the fields urban areas Sheaves of grain pictured here are a rare and cut thresh and winnow grain crops In one operation province wide system for disposal ot car hulks Unsightly wrecks or cars that refuse to go any further are clut up both urban and rural areas In this town neighboring villages and farms Removal of these eyesores would help neigh borhood aesthetics as well as lifting the ones from neighbors who complain but seldom get action Allot these recommendations as weseethem are meant to Improve living conditions not to create some ruge paradise where suspicions of dirt or unk are banned by edicts and ignored by the sloppy We would hope that the govern ment accepts the report as a penetrating look at some very real problems In the province With accompanying Imaginative solutions Implementation should be the next step and soon We ape animals and birds An editorial writer In the Dominion took her own survey of how often animals birds fish and even Insects penetrate our dally speech It was a headline entitled This Grandfather is Still a Lion which started mental processes moving About a latecomer to big time auto racing who still indulges in the sport though a grandfather and years old the headline writer adapted the simile We do use expressions such as he is a bear for punishment or stubborn as a mule We rail at the road hog An older person Is often as frisky as a colt or someone eats like a horse There are wolves In sheep clothing sly as a fox and some refer to wives as hounds for bargains Other examples We can act like a bull in a china or possess a whale of an appetitm appetite The wife may be a mouse when It comes to mingling with guests at a party and chicken out when it comes to welcoming some of her husband s friends but she eats like a bird Is busy as a bee and a cute chick She is such a calf when it comes to travelling on a plane but behaves like a wildcat If forced to go against her wishes He has horse sense Is wise as an owl when It comes to handling women and has eyes like a hawk when she comes home with a new dress which stretches the budget to the breaking point The close pursed relative is tight as a clam Modern form of greeting You old dog you The neighbor lady may sing like a canary but neighbors feel she has the voice of a crow Some people waddle like ducks And who been busy as a bee People are quick to note that birds of a feather flock together Who referred to someone as that worm Common shunning of surprise Is mixed up in terms like that snake in the grass All these similes suggest that perhaps we resemble the lower animals and birds more than we care to admit the 20 years ago Token from the Issue of the Free Press Thursday September School bells hove summoned over students back to their places this week in Acton schools Principal reports an increase in attendance over last year and this year the school will handle pupils In 10 rooms The rotary system will be inaugurated In grades five to eight Mr McKenzic and Mr Smith will be in charge of the Social Studies in the four grades Miss will assist the music supervisor Miss Stewart and Mrs Wilkinson will be in charge of science Enrolment at the high school reaches a new peak of 127 The teaching staff is Principal Bobbins Mr Hansen Mrs Robbins Miss Miss Grindley and Mr Ross Doyle Several of the lower grades are split up In two rooms Mrs Alger now teaches grades one and two Miss Williams grades two and three and Miss Griffin three and four Miss Anderson will teach grade four Miss grade one and Miss McPhall the kindergarten Russell Howard Neville of Eden Mills died in Guelph General Hospital in his year after a lengthy Illness 50 years ago Taken from the Issue of the Free Press Thursday September 16 1920 The Toronto Star the other evening published the following Item poultry fancier has established a record in the district His 12 bens have presented him with 837 eggs within months Pshaw said John Kenny of Bower Ave as he read this from his paper in the post office I have I have hens which have laid eggs In eight months Excavations have been made for the splendid memorial monument to be erected as Acton contribution to the memory of their brave soldier heroes and the cement foundations are now being put in The German trench mortar to be placed beside the monument has arrived from Ottawa and has been placed on the town hall square The members of the League have been spending the past two months in weekly athletic exercises The shrill whistle and steady hum of the threshing machine are beard in our midst Thomas Nelles who was struck by lightning three months ago was in town for the first time since the Incident 75 years ago Taken from the issue of the re Press Thursday August One of the biggest day threshing ever accomplished in this section was performed on Monday for Mr David Williamson William Cripps was the manipulator of the machine which turned out I bushels of grain in hours and 29 minutes as follows bushels of peas of wheal of barley and of oats This work required five changes during the day and meant considerable hustling The following are the selections of literature m the S examination for 1896 Selections for memorization The Bells of To Mary in Heaven Ring Out Wild Bells Lady Care Lead Kindly Light Before Sedan To a Skylark The Three Fishers Elegy wntten in a Country Churchyard The reading list is too long to publish but includes such sentimental selections as To Daffodils Rule Britannia The Death of Little Nell The Evening Cloud A psalm of Life The Exile of Erin Ye Manners of England The Capture of Quebec The Raven Indian Summer The Cane Bottomed Chair The Return of the Swallows THE ACTON FREE PRESS PHONE fl and id a a OHe SiHnKN front TT icl7 mem lea Harry Norton Bill Wilson front row left to right Velma Blair Brown Barbara Guthrie Isabel Bruce Perry Doris MacDonald Lorn Helen M Laura CUrS Bauer Catherine Marjory cross Laura Claire Garden Marjory Garden Oral Violet aSuMion Sf Joe Audrey McComb Hall Marguerite Marjory Near Isabel M Smith Isabel Currle WOT Basil Mellon Gordon Hansen Stewart Lantz BUI Williams Esther Taylor Harvey CWlord Webster George Motel Smith Miss Bertha Nephew principal Mr Laurence Miss