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4 The Acton Free Preaa Wed January Town hall could be restored Weekly newspaper editor Pete Hvidsten waB the guest of honor last Friday at a surprise retirement party A carload from Acton and Milton went over to Port Perry to join in the handshaking speeches reminiscing and laughter But what impressed us most of all was the place where the party was helda place close to publisher Hvidstens heart Port Perrys old town hall has been gorgeously restored to its original glory Pete is on the committee which vigorously protested when the town council seemed willing to sell the ram shackle big old building and get rid of it There was a strong historical society in Port Perry and at their insistence council leased them the town hall for a year They probed at the grant system and dis covered there was plenty available if requests were gone about properly The town hall was declared a historic site and the work of restoration began It was here in the huge upstairs ball room that the retirement party was held And we Acton people couldn help but think How about our town hall Would our council let it fall into such complete disrepair they d be glad to sell it to anyone whod take if Port Perrys building for years housed a factory Actons now houses the police station and senior citizens drop in centre Actons town hall used to have a wide double staircase leading to the large auditorium upstairs Where is that staircase now Port Perry restored its jail cell too Can Acton do that now The beautiful building m Port Perry was an inspiration For the railroad station were too late but maybe we can think ahead about preserving our town hall Try good news instead Oh the problems of trying to produce a newscast for the radio We had no idea At a hearing of the Canadian Radio and Transport in Toronto last week two groups from Burlington applied for a license for a radio station there The commission was expected to approve them One of the groups spokesmen according to the Toronto Star explained news coverage on the station would lean toward inter because Burlington does not generate as much hard news as some cities Says the report There were not enough local fires cnmes and rapes to fill a newscast every day Isn that just a shame Of course they could take a tip from the weekly newspapers which find people actually enjoy hearing good news too Lets keep our streets Renaming of some streets could be a possibility if Halton Hdls council pursues a suggestion from the works committee Last week the committee discussed the idea of maybe renaming streets m Acton and Georgetown which have the same name The committee agreed to look into the plan sometime in the future and also examine the possibility of naming rural roads In Georgetown the Historical Society has responded quickly They are going to be ready to suggest name changes if the town goes ahead with the idea The members hope histonc Georgetown names will not be Of course Acton people will feel the same way even if we do not have a Historical Society to put our feelings into words Historical names in towns like ours are the same everywhere Mill Main family names such as John and Elizabeth and others including clues such as or Church The Georgetown group thought they might have liaison aetween their Esquesmg Historical Society and local history minded people here A commendable idea and one that will be appreciated here But the thought that comes to mind at once is that Acton wants to maintain its own full identity and that means names Surely George town does too We can t really see any great problem in continuing to say Mill St Acton or Mill St Georgetown to the end of time The fact there was a mill there is part of our history Acton will remain Acton and Georgetown will remain George town even if our built up boundaries touch Of this and that So the Toronto high school teachers were advised by their leaders to protest being ordered back to work by dressing like laborers Unite laborers and protest How about dressing like teachers swimming awn BELIEVE IT OR not there were both snowmobilers and swimmers in Fairy Lake Sunday Three divers were practising underwater maneouvres while snowmobilers etched patterns all over the lake with their machines Sunday was a perfect day for winter sports fans sunny and cold with plenty of snow Sugar and Spice by bill smiley I lilted some of the things 1 dislike our society When I finish I thought to myself Boy you are misty old piece of work Do you realize scratched the surface I- or a week or two I went around think in or second spurts three or four that I was a Curmudgeon Some of my younger readers will not know what curmudgeon is Well It from tho root word mud OUR READERS WRITE Community identity concerns L Duby I was concerned to read in week Free Press suggestions of a possible street naming bingo renaming of streets so references Georgetown and Acton could be eliminated To do anything that would deliberately remove the need to refer to Acton George town or would be most and unacceptable It would be tary and willful extension to the mandatory regulations of Bill 151 We all know or we should now that the two towns and the township ore parts of the new Town of Hills the new larger municipality for governing pur poses I can recognize and appreciate that it may be an administrative and staff ience but first should come public fence The changing of street names was done voluntarily in the new Town of Cambridge in the Region of Waterloo but it did not eliminate the direct reference to Gait Preston or so what did they gain by it What I am saying then Is that a com munlty will exist whether it is a municipal lly or not as long as ita people have a sense of community on which group Identity Is bawd In Metro Toronto it has been years since there were municipalities called Forest Hill or aside and yet these among others are still strongly Identifiable as communities Other parts of Metro like or arc similarity identifiable be cause of a sense of community yet they ne ver were York Region is same with com such as Thornhill and Oak Ridges neither one a municipality before regionalize I ion I think it Is safe to soy that every other Region in Ontario has communities of this sort former municipalities thai arc re taining their Identities despite lions and other communities that never were municipalities but exist nevertheless because their inhabitants have a sense of group identity It is my opinion that we should search for all ways possible to preserve our tics and part of that searching and pre serving should be undertaken by those of us who are representatives of communities that make up the newly merged polity In this regard may 1 make these points First encouraging community spirit within a segment of a municipality is a positive act and not to be confined with promoting destructive and tally a community will always exist if it meets Hit needs of lis inhabitants Much some politicians must like to do so you cannot create a single community by Incorporating municipality and draw a boundary it And so the oppo site is also true we cannot destroy a com even if wanted to by dissolv ing a municipal corporation Thot is why I think It is untrue or least a serious exaggeration to suggest amalgamation should cause a town or vll lage to lose any of Identity Let me make more reference closer to home One of tht most contentious carnations In Peel Region In which became pari or Despite all sorts of dire predictions to he contrary has remained vtry much an identifiable community within the new city of Everyone municipal reps and the pub- lie should try to foster a healthy spirit of identity among Inhabitants of communities that have ceased to be municipalities Due many questions over a period of time put to me on losing our Identity I have groped for ways lo express myself The suggestion to change street names really turned me on Respectfully LcsDuby We all know what mud is It is dirty It is cool under the iocs unless It Is in form of a mud pack which is good for the wrinkles If your name is you arc cither In Ihe doghouse or you are a loser hope thai is clear To the root word mud unless want to root around In the mud a bit long or we the prefix cur A cur as everyone knows teeth and sometimes a moustache who plays the villain in old fashioned melo dramas In new fashioned melodrama he also has teeth and a big belly or a bold head and he has become the hero Still with me We now have curmud signifying a mean guy who is cool under the toes has wrinkles or is a loser Some times all ihrce Now we come to the suffix geon which Is of more obscure vintage It is of Hungarian antecedent and it seems to have meant originally some thing we might call colloquially a dummy who makes a lot of silly and unnecessary noise without getting anywhere which is rather a contradiction in lerms come to think of it There are many perversions of the glnal of course We find the suffix In such words as Injun engine and John But the original meaning Is In there somewhere An Injun for example is one ihe original In people who rides around in ever diminishing circles emitting war whoops until he is shot off his horse Think or your car The engine makes lot of silly and unnecessary noise at least mine does and gets nowhere Occasion ally the car gets somewhere but Ihe en glnc remains exactly where it started In he car And of course there is the colloquial word John meaning a toilet Or water closet or backhouse if toilet offends you This item of hardware indulges In a great deal of unnecessary noise whether rrcelv mg or transmuting and is usually going nowhere except on trains buses or air planes when It is so active it has to put up busy sign most of the time On ships of course with their innate sens of superiority the John is called a head This came about when one of the head men in tht British Navy Admiral Sir Dud ley Pound affectionately known lo his jolly tars as dud once went looking for the John and discovered a lot of Com Seamen land a common lot they wen lined up w one of the symplon of scurvy known as dire rear In the inter of clarity this has nothing do with term rear admiral Understandably Sir Dud flew into high rage only type allowed to senior officers and a good deal of silly unnecessary noise or geon when he hod to wail his turn for John As naval tradition has it this led to the wedding of dud and geon meaning a John that isn t working or a senior officer with a red face or a towering rage which ever you choose That s one of the beauties of the English language You can take your pick And you know what you con do with it If you have followed me carefully through this brief but enlightening ex ploralion Into semantics I am sure you have come to the conclusion I have that I am not a Curmudgeon at all I am not a mean guy I haven hit little kid since mine grew up I am not cool under the iocs My feet heat something terrible in this weather I am not a loser How can you know you re a loser when you don know it is to be a winner I do not go around making silly and un necessary noises except when it is ab solutely necessary And finally feel that I am definitely getting somewhere The Free Press J Back Issues 20 years ago Taken from the Issue of the Free Pre January IBM Garnet Rose was elected president of the Brotherhood of Anglican Churchmen at their first meeting of the new year Other officers arc vicepresident E secretary K Thompson bazaar convener B Spitzer convener G Hnrgrave When Susan Marilyn the daughter of Mr and Mrs Somerville was chrlst in Knox church there were seven grandfathers two grandmothers two great grandmothers one great grandfather were Mr Mr and Mrs George Somerville of Acton Mr and Mrs Andy Frank of Campbcllville Mr and Mrs T A Storey or Rock wood and Mrs William Frank of Georgetown The guests ing Mr Bill Somerville of gathered at the home of Mr and Mrs afterwards The January meeting of the Bannock burn Women was held in school The president Mrs C Storey opened the meeting with the Institute Ode followed by the Lord Prayer Roll coll was a favorite magazine The guest speaker for the evening was Mac who showed the ladles some very interesting local pictures and same of his Irip to the British Isles Ken Knox is the president of Ihe Board this year Other board members are vice- president G W McKcnzie secretary Mrs J Hurst treasurer Mrs Janet Rogers Phil Caddick finance chairman ill Wilson building Jack Ridley and leadership Elmer Smith 50 years ago Taken from the issue of the Free of Thursday January 1920 The annual meeting of Acton Fall Fair was held in the Council Chamber January 13 The Auditor Report showed a credit balance of for the year in addition to the Victory Bonds purchased during the The assets materially increased through gift of G T of sanitary and commodious poultry coops to Ihe value of MOO Mr George and Mr Alex were appointed life members of the association President is S Johnstone 1st vice president Duncan 2nd vice president R J Kerr directors K Gra ham L B Kenney J Ken nedy C Woodhall R J Ramshaw D S I indsay E J R M McDonald S Lindsay D D J Robertson W Dredge J Smith Robert Kerr Duncan Campbell Chas Lasby W N H Black No benefaction ever conferred in town from a humane standpoint has been more beneficial than the splendid animal water trough on Main St installed some years ago by the Women Institute The flowing water is relished by horses dogs and birds This year it has been kept running even zero weather This trough Is now In the park The marriage took place at Knox church of Alice Johnstone and Victor The bride wore her travelling of blonde crepe meteor with brown chenille close fitting French hat of the same shade and carried roses 100 years ago Taken from the issue of the Free January 13 J their regular monthly meeting school trustees agreed to carry out clauses of the Ontario School Law In reference to the at tendance of children between the ages of and 12 inclusive during four months or the year They approved the sum of be granted toward replenishing the School Library and that no works of fiction be purchased To the Editor Sir You amongst others may perchance have noticed the ruined condition of the fences and other wooden structures in our village One of our citizens has at length discovered the cause of all this havoc in the shape of a most pertinacious cow This animal lately sawed her way through Ihe wall of his domicile appro priated poultry feed and a straw mattress and demolished the contents of a feather bed and a large quantity of fur She was with difficulty dislodged by he aid of a bowl of hot water and a pitch fork II is to be hoped the Municipal Council will make some provision against this ten or ism The monthly fair last Thursday was but thinly attended owing no doubt to Ihe very bad state of the roads The only sale re ported to us was by Mr Anderson who sold a cow for The Milton News says can take he premium for worst roads in Canada The Fountain Hotel at Kilbride was burned to the ground It is believed a practical route for the Pacific Railway through British Columbia has been found THE ACTON FREE PRESS PHONE Business and Editorial Office rquT Canada nan Canada In Acton emit par elm mall no on mar In nr ma no by llim rutoiMbl lor M I not M tar ancaotmaadvarllMmantwIllbapald ling or tar MvHIItlnoManagar Copyright 1976