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i the En Itew THE ERA DAVID HASKELL TERRY CARTER DONALD MARTNDALE GEORGE Parks policy Municipalities particularly those in the Metro Toronto fringe areas should acquire park land before sub divisions are planned and built not after the Ontario Parks Association was told recently Town planner Norman Pearson said the policy of getting five per cent park area included in residential sub division agreements as is now required under the Municipal Act increases the price of homes Mr Pearson who last year as a University of professor coauthored a detailed study of the fringe area north of Metro pointed out that under the present sys tem park and school sites arent acquired until thousands of dollars have been spent on them in subdivision planning and in legal work at the municipal level concerned with the pass ing of zoning bylaws and changing of official plans Yet before the whole process started the land would have cost much less he said He said municipalities should have the foresight to buy parkland before it jumps in price His recommendation is particularly applicable to the new York Region which early next year must establish its policy on regional parks and to the newlyelected New market and Aurora municipal councils They must decide whether the Holland River valley is to be preserved for park and recreation or to be filled with apartments factories and homes Good idea Bob Mayorelect Bob Forhan who doesnt assume of fice for another months is already making plans for his twoyear term of office His plan to seek advice from Provincial officials regarding town administration makes sense Newmarket will be a much different place to go vern and administer after Jan 1 The population will jump from 10000 to 16000 and huge areas of land will be added Newmarket will become even more of the centre for the surrounding area than it is at present It will be the recreational commercial and cultural centre for the huge ru ral areas of King East and Whitchurch-Stouff- It is for these reasons that the administration of Newmarket will need overhauling This is not to say that the present staff cannot handle the job but that a clearer defin ition of duties and responsibilities will he required Its to Mr Forhans credit that he has the vision to see into the future to take steps now that will insure an orderly transition to Regional Government Meeting of the their Scott Young it was worth it Sometimes when a man gets an appre hensive feeling it is a good idea to listen It was that way about six pm on the day the duck sea son opened A storm began with thunder and lightning Big claps Big flashes We were stand ing on small wooden skids set on fallen trees in this swamp I was about 50 yards from one of my friends and three others were scattered yards or so away in other hides Bob the nearest one is a big man He was an army sergeant and now he sells cars On both counts he doesnt scare easily I think may be wed better get out of here he called over to Aw I dont know I called hack The ducksll just be coming Because of the storm it was much darker than usual in the swamp and I was right the ducks soon came and Bob and I were knocking them down at a good rate But then one of my other friends Dave came paddling along in a canoe He was an air force navigator and spent three years in a German prison camp He doesnt scare easily Jay and I and Doug have been talk ing he rumbled Decided its just not a good idea to be sticking steel barrels like lightning rods up into this storm I guess youre right I said By then I had my limit so it wasnt exactly a case of a change of heart Also the rain was coming down harder I knew where we had dropped our ducks so Dave got into my hide and I started out to find them Sometimes I had to get out and stand in my waders on fallen trees or brush and pull the canoe across Eventually I went in up to my waist but I picked up the ducks and whats a of water between friends By then the ducks were really piling in for the night big mallards and blacks by the dozens dropping down in the rain We were all soaked as we loaded the canoe and our other gear to the 1958 panel truck standing in a stub- hie field behind trees at one edge of the swamp The field was soft anyway from pre vious rains When we were ready to go the mud tires at the back just dug deep and the truck wouldnt move We tried shoving it and rocking it All we did was dig up the field After trying for half an hour we knew we werent getting out The night now was im penetrably black Lets take our guns and leave everything else Jay called through the rain He owns the truck and also is a friend of the farmer on whose land we were shooting If we cant get him to pull us out with his tractor well just have to phone one of the women to come and get us That would be a round trip of 80 miles Ill carry the ducks too I said I knew our wives had wax all heated in the garage at home where traditionally on opening night we pluck and clean the ducks in preparation for a grand duck dinner the following day I didnt want to miss that We had started away from the truck when we heard a very welcome sound a tractor starting up at the farmhouse a few hundred yards away Ken the farmer covered from head to foot in oilskins arrived on the tractor a few minutes later I said to the wife Ill bet those fel lows are stuck he said So he had come to see He brushed off our fervent thanks Anybody would do the same he said He hauled us across three fields to the road and then we were on our way looking forward to the warm house dry clothes Later we plucked and cleaned ducks The next day about 15 of us sat down to dinner We did a lot of laughing over what it had taken to put those ducks on the table And about ledge of the a Speakers Panel A num ber erf lawyers who are members of the Association will make themselves av ailable on request to speak on subjects such as real estate wills estate plan ning taxation criminal law commercial and com pany law municipal law vocation the law The procedure for a school service club wo mens group or other associ ation to obtain a speaker will be to telephone the writer or his secretary at and advise what subject they would like a lawyer to speak to them about They will then be given the telephone num- ivould be prepared tend and address them on the subject selected The York North Law Association Is a group of lawyers in York County who practice law north of Steeles Avenue and who have as one of their objec tives the creation of a sep arate judicial district for the area so as to improve the administration of jus tice for local residents Yours truly YORK NORTH LAW Dear Editor Now that a newly elected let us get on with the nitty gritty of good government namely pride in our town As useful as they are sports programs estrian malls Beer Gardens do not make real I civic pride We can begin by cleaning up our litter til- led lots and creeks Spruce Pioneers Cemetery your readers attention bet- than words I do know I that his previous picture of I the mess at Huron Heights had some results but this must be a process S SIMMONS Crier By BILL GAMBLE Blights plight Smiley Thanksgiving one of our truly impor tant holidays is losing much of its religious sig nificance and becoming more of a bacchanalian festival a last fling before melancholy autumn grips us in his frosty fingers The air as it was last weekend is more apt to be redolent rye and roast turkey than of incense There are more people cussing on the golf course than praying on their knees in church Despite this growing paganism Thanksgiving is about as good a time as any for stocktaking and I try to do it every year I hope you do The Lord or whoever looks after the weather nearly always seems to feel a bit benign toward us poor forked animals on Thanksgiving weekend Almost every year the holiday is a of golden sunshine and glorious color a time for thanks country where the seasons are so sharply defined And Im always doubly thankful that it isnt yet soggy November Be honest now What did you give thanks for this Thanksgiving Or did you just go to a family reunion glut yourself on turkey and curse at traffic all the way home Or did you just go for a drive in the country and burble over the foliage Or just crowd in a last game of golf or sail on the lake Or just shoot a bird or catch a fish Shame We should begin with the basics Just being alive is something to be ineffably thankful for There not much joie de vivre in the grave yard Forget that arthritis that insomnia that pimple on your nose Youll be a long time dead and you can spend all of it whining over your physical ailments To be sane or relatively sane in a world that seems insane is something for which we should send up paeans of praise Think of AROUND THE COUNTY standing off to the side of the tracks I climbed the bank reached the tracks and saw them running through the fields I took It off after them man am What the heck I fat was that They stopped IM off the road ruining and had hid under fci the ditch Was I glad Whats that splat because after running in hi the was out of breath I u heading fce running M St and bad peace the at the south I looked Into the end if ami and some boshes and saw a pair of one had tasted aa apple off red pasts I moved some the my wind- branches and grabbed a off the young boy by the arm Md cm- picked him up and said coming with me the read and we watted off towards i oat at the the bridge and my car I more me panting and out of Ml ssswerer breath He screamed and bridge yelled at that he a flt bids had better tea shield I when he didnt be yelled On the way to be police station I sim mering down and asked my self the question what the and play Dropping things from It Just adds to the fan In the St Clair Caledonia District where grew up there was a rail way bridge on the same route that the train passes through Aurora to reach white from bis base ment window And Us fath er before him tried throw ing something at the chased and caught I scared and when I taken home my father I fnriMt Later I leaned The boys are pro bably grounded and have been given ardors to away from the bridge but I think its safe to say that theyll be back because Beys will be the poor lost creatures overflowing our mental places and thank God youre not among them Being alive and being sane then Other basics are shelter and food We dont give them much thought in this affluent country Al most nobody in this land is without shelter be it ever so humble And nobody is starving be he ever so hungry unless hes plain stupid The worst Thanksgiving I ever spent was in October I didnt even think of Thanksgiving at the time I had just received a thorough goingover for attempting to escape from the Germans My nose pointed one way and one of my legs the other My hands feet were tied It was very cold and there were no blankets Food was four slices of bread a day tut looking back I realize I had lots to be thankful for I had the roof of a boxcar overhead to keep out the rain until a night- fighter shot some holes in it I had enough food to stay alive and no steak has ever been as de licious as that black bread And I was alive young bloody but unbowed I should have been singing Bringing in the Sheaves What else should we be thankful for Certainly not the new car the new boat the now snowmobile the finer house These arc trivia that wc cant take with us Definitely we should be thankful for our children however much pain they have caused us We cant take them with us either but we can leave them and their children so on as testimony that we once lived loved We should be deeply grateful that we live in a land where hatred and violence and pre judice are frowned upon rather than accepted as part of daily life Wo should be thankful fervently for real friends and good neighbors Not the type who pry and are delighted when something is wrong but the stalwarts who rally round and give comfort when things are black or blue Perhaps I sound tike a Pollynnnn But you just try it My wife has burned the stew is snarly The hills are piling In I have a car buncle In mi extremely and painful place But after counting my blessings I know Ill be humble and grateful For at lenHt three days Someone in the enter tainment field once defined born loser as A guy who gives up drinking alcohol because his doc tor told him it was bad for him then goes out and gets hit by a beer truck My own definition of a born loser would have to be A re turning officer in a small town such as this whose unenviable task it is to cast the solitary vote which will split a tie between two men he knows personally Such must be the con sternation of Newmarket Town Clerk Grant Blight following the deadlock for seventh council spot after last weeks municipal elec tion between former mayor Bert Kent and politico Both wound up with 1580 votes If after tho recount the vote remains tied Mr Blight would cast the deciding vote as required by the Ontario Municipal Act Mr Blights plight alli teration unintended is made no less unenviable by the untimely and somewhat irresponsible re mark made by Bradford Witness reporter Boy Green who conclud ed his news story last week with the following opinion He Mr Blight can also ask present council for guidance in tho vote If he does Farr Is the likely choice I dont believe any of those on that council who have just been reelected want to be the object of Kents spicy I have long been a firm advocate of freedom of opin ion among newspaper reporters and I will defend to selfdestruc tion Mr Greens right to voice his However to brand Mr Kent as a purveyor of spicy criticisms at the precise moment when Mr Blights vote will decide his politi cal fate without first giving some qualification as to the validity or lack thereof of such criticisms is not only untimely but also in bad taste In the first place only three members of the incumbent council have been reelected and of those only one has served on that one is Seneca Cook Therefore Mr Cook Is the only re elected member of council who Is qualified to judge Mr Kent in his official capacity Waa Mr Green quoting Mr Cook If so why not state so If on the other hand the j remaining two reelected members I namely Mrs Doris Blair and Mr B Aubrey Smith neither of whom have served under Mr Kent ever B such a view to Mr if Green then in my opinion they I dont deserve the votes they re- simply because they would i be judging a man on mere hear- say condemning as it were a suspect without first giving him a trial But gravely doubt that thcr one did The fact is that if Mr Blight docs seek guidance from council it will be the present court- not the newlyelected one to which he will have to turn But somehow I dont think he will pass the buck Being the chief clerk of a growing town such as Newmar ket Is a highly responsible position position that can only be success fully held by a man capable of making his own decisions between a man with many years of political experience an known quantity which might suit in a high degree of political value I am sure that he possesses the guts to make that decision alone And I am equally sure that he will remain unstimulated by wayward opinions such as Ooooooo The flat of my blade goes swish this week to the or ganizers of the recent Main Street mall It should be pretty obvious J by now that discrimination has become a dirty word Yet there they were discriminating crazy Who told them for in stance that Main Street started