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THE ERA York County Sine R TERRY CARTER JOHN Rabies inoculation should be mandatory The recent onslaught of cold weather and snow will alow down the spread of rabies among our animal population but the disease will never be wiped out According to the Ontario Humane Society the disease has been endemic in southern Ont arios fox and skunk population for many years The real danger to the human population lies in the possibility of rabies becoming com monplace in the pet population particularly dogs and cats Most people can recognise when a wild animal Is behaving abnormally When a attacks a large dog there is something very obviously wrong When a timid secretive fox becomes bold brash and quite fearless then obviously something Is equally wrong The average person Is Instinctively cautious of wild animals It is probably this Instinct which has prevented the public from being seriously ex posed to the danger of rabies in past years This same reaction does not apply to the dogs and cats which are kept as pets In such large numbers The Society points out that in every rabies We agree with the Humane Society in its general public and the health and wellbeing of contention that the Ontario government should the animals themselves require owners of pets to have their animals inoculated against rabies and that this inocu lation should be mandatory It should be a con dition of harboring a pet It is necessary for the wellbeing of the York needs more Big Brothers happy that there Region of York who Brother Big Brother Week in North The York Big Brother movement Is seeking in the Region Big Brothers to help young boys have the particularly in me necessary to the healthy development of man of the future Men who are interested but do not have the time to be a Big Brother can be associate members or as little as a year Women too can become members If you would like to be a Big Brother contact Glenn Box Aurora If you wish to become a member Big contribution This week America and i of York With a small budget and a limited staff the Big Brothers of York have been able to be a father to boys who look forward each week to sharing with their Big Brother their Interests in sports hobbles or books The Big Brothers of York however Richmond Hill Smith Yonge St NEWSROOM NOTES VROOM Here they come again John lott THE Readers ERA This space It reserved for tht comments opinions and drawings of is Please fttl fret to send yours All wt ask it thai you your name and It was New Years Day and Id Just settled back for a long afternoon of watching gridiron gladiators frolic about on the television screen when it started It continued through the next two days and nights and marked the beginning of what might be called the winter of our discontent The annual snowmobile Invasion began last Saturday about noon We live In the heart of snowmobile country east of Newmarket across the road from the York County Forest Owners that wreck havoc tors are extremely lax For the annoyance exper ienced by my family and our neighbors at any hour of the day or night we have no recourse East Township has a bylaw gov erning snowmobiles Its a toughie It prohibits snowmobile operation on all the sidewalks in the township All six of them Which means that the only way for me to get back at my tormentors is to build a sidewalk In front of house Or better yet right across the middle of the road in front of my house York Regional Police Chief Bruce Crawford admits snowmobiles are a growing problem One problem his force faces is the lack of uniform Between bites the apple was sweet Looking back on 1971 1 find it contains the years usual melange of the good and evil the sweet and bitter the worm within the luscious apple An old friend Don of Renfrew the Best Newspaper award among Canadas weeklies Ive thought for several years that he had the best weekly in the country sorry about all you other chaps who turn out firstclass weeklies but never got around to telling him On the other side of the fence I read an editorial In the Bowmanville Statesman an old established many times winners of prizes writ ten from his hospital bed by another old friend John James This shook me a bit Havent seen Don for some years but we have an old pact He was in the army and one day was being slightly harassed by Hun SBs a fearsome gun if ever there was A flight of Typhoons came over and silenced the Jerry guns We met at a newspaper convention and he promised me hed buy me the biggest and best dinner I could eat every time we got together because Id been a Typhoon pilot And he still sends an annual Invitation to come trout fishing In the Otlawa Valley the natal place of many like i Last time I saw John James he and two antic sons were whaling golf balls at a week lies tournament while I puddled along with my usual slices hooks and various blunders of the Get well John and hit them a mile Heres a clipping and note from Tommy Lee former weekly editor and now PR man with Royal Trust He too was a pilot ThB clip ping is about the big aircrew reunion in Winni peg and the note chides me for not hobnobbing with the mob I wanted to go Tommy but my wouldnt let me She didnt want me In a casket ind heres a note from Walter Koyanagl of the Alta Times giving me hell for using Japs In a column He claims that the word Jap is derogatory and objectionable He its just an abbreviation He also doubts If I would call a German or Italian other than such public print See above Walter I wouldnt give a diddle If somebody called Canadians Cans In fact might be suitable Many of us have the figure and the mental resilience of George Cadogan who actually go this column going cant resist the smell of printers ink and has got back into the scramble of running a week ly after a letter swearing that he was going to take it easy and spend the winter in Spain Take it easy George is a long way from Majorca But good luck Lord Thomson of the And the bitter News that a close friend of my wifes a dedicated Catholic nun and one of the most vibrant cheery personalities one could meet is seriously ill Young in age and spirit she resists my firm conviction that God does not see the little sparrow fall Bless her Heres a buoyant letter from my Uncle Ivan who has suffered the tragic loss of a brilliant son and the death of his wife in a stupid car accident is 79 and Is off to Florida and thinks hell drive this time And just before Christmas friends of ours lost a little sixyearold angel of a girl who was pitilessly smashed to rags in a stupid unneces sary car accident on her way home from school And so it goes the bitter and the sweet the good and bad joyous and the tragic Life and its the only one we have I dont want to spoil a mood or appear frivolous but we had the whole thing distilled in our Christmas vacation with two cats We have a fat neutered lady called Pip bequeathed to us by Kim when she left home Well Pip has established the fact that she is queen of her own domain She chases every thing from squirrels to butterflies to spiders out of her backyard in summer and deigns to spend the winter eating and sleeping Home from college comes Kim sneaking In a box with airholes the rauchiest randiest young tomcat youve ever laid eyes on For the first few days Pip tried to lay down the law as to whom the house belonged to The pre- air was rent with howls and screams as they clashed Id put one in the cellar the other In the back Finally fat old Pip got too pooped to parti cipate After a few days they decided to coexist and now spend their time chasing each other up the drapes and over the upholstery Maybe theres a message here somewhere The good and the bad the bitter and the sweet are part of life and we can either accept it or run away from it laws governing snowmobile operation His police nine different municipalities and no two snowmobile bylaws are alike And politicians who sit down to try to hammer out rules for snowmobiles invariably end up screaming at each other because they canl agree on rules and they realize that the rules cant be enforced any- It makes no sense to me Itiat snowmobiles should be allowed on any road anywhere Theres a man out Cedar Valley way whos running a snowmobile resort He was interview on tele vision the other night and predicted that in a few years all would be done with in specially designated areas I believe the province should begin taking steps right now lo ensure this happens Event ually snowmobiles should be banned from ail highways and streets I believe Our lawmakers dont allow race car drivers to pilot their souped up vehicles on public high ways Why then should they let snowmobiles run wild disturbing wildlife and creating noise pollution What irks me most about the that infest my neighborhood is their total lack of respect for persons living nearby and persons driving cars on the road They seem to derive great pleasure from gunning their engines and zipping down the centre of the road sending for the ditch on right track John Robert ami the Committee They have only ID make Iho rail system Ihermorc Asphodel the York North Hal I grant on Nov the Is the three Community Centre for months my personal difference between that Mr Bill n PC York North I would be in his speech made trie and would cost so that was the reason Mr buses were being used fact GEORGE Will the real Bryan Hay please stand up Now I know how Clark Kent would feci if wore strolling around Metropolis on his stand- chores a It only was a matter of lime before some bright person would link the Bryan Hay of Regional Council infamy with the heavy and the dudes are into a different bag Lets face it Garfield Wright is no Mick And my working clothes are a little differ- tiedies have therV world of difference between the pop Mod Squad and the one of reality the plagued me and has True as announced in The Era when I over the role of backpatter and Regional Council I had covered municipal no Oh yes Im told that snowmobile club mem bers are simply marvelous people who observe all the safety rules and police themselves and its the persons who arent club members who cause all the trouble That may be so But I cant think of any redeeming qualities of the snowmobile except for those who live where the machines are need ed for transportation Theyre dangerous noisy and disruptive to the environment And anyone who says theyre simply good clean fun is out of touch with reality ent The fringed buckskin been replaced by a sports coat and pair of cata logue dress pants Also Ihe afro has been shear ed and the granny glasses swapped for the old But it happened at when an office girl who looked as though she wouldnt know the difference between Frank Sinatra and Brinsley Schwarz caught me dead to wrongs The cold shivers began when she opened Yes And all I could mumble In this day and age of selfanalysis I off her next query as to how I could rei the two trips to slip into an old jargon for a second with a trite comment that Robert White world of rock freaks and But getting Into my own head I myself wondering how to reconcile two completely different lifestyles groove on both Im only human act both to some politicians and musicians arotuij less and what human doesnt have more one overriding interest in life My two happen to be basically rock mus something he doesnt give a damn about Thau to my mind is hokum I just wouldnt get a Junior A hockey game or the latest on Bay Street the one in Toronto whe the bulls and bears all hang for me there to be a personal involvement Not an axe to hone but a certain interest But which do I prefer Thats like s ing a bigamous sailor which of his two wives loves the most Over a brew with a crony he likely say both equally But with other is probably the furthest thing mind at the time I love both And am happy writing and talking both And listening to both Therein I find a great similarity between There is also a great deal of artificiality in both worlds You know that no matter how much they natter at a Council meeting they are following some basicallyordained plan originat ing at either Queens Park or Parliament Hill In the rock business you might stir up some action locally but the preordained star syn drome and charttopper line comes from a couple of tipsheet artists I almost said con artists working out of Los Angeles highrise office buildings bucks under the table the quietlydelivered of booze call it what you will the oldfashioned word is graft The answer to that is another oldfashioned word ethics But Who knows Beneath the mildma municipal affairs writer still lurks the latent ageing hippie and someday someplace stand clear of the broom closets around the Regional Building because I may come bounding out of