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PAGE 6 â€" WATERLOO CHRONICLE, WEDNESDAY, MAY 22, 1985 If ever a group has performed (conspired is more like it) above and beyond the call of duty to avoid warâ€" gas variety â€" our local outlets have to take the cake. Local peace groups have a collective candidate next time they honor those dedicated to the pursuit of peace â€" our friendly area gas station operators. o " e Of course, don‘t go crying to the individual station operators about the outrageous prices we have been paying the past few months. They will tell you their prices are ‘"what we are told" to set them. And any assault on ivory tower company types will net you the predictable supply, demand, competition angles. The only thing that is certain is that in the end, the consumer gets the kick in the pants. Second Class Mail Registration Number 5540 We do have some sympathy for the dedicated fullâ€"service operators who due to higher overheads are straddling a fine line with prices. But the fact remains, the price of gasoline in Waterloo, especially in the past few months where often it has broken the 50 cents per litre barrier, is patently unfair. MW&": '»W'»mci&-‘ - T whae A o g'w oo 'v ' ‘;» e k4 4 ax . ‘“ NR Aae tha e .V“W, T e rchnmpades cig> nmnimenl. 4.+ ‘vfi:t'fi-” .. 22 t o im mnnen To AaRE CE l e . max y > . (,r\ a’fi‘ ht '/' i airk f ‘_; % s A w L Last weekend â€" the May 24th holiday weekend â€" the price of regular gasoline in Toronto hovered around the 38 cent per litre mark. At some cut rate stations, it was even less. Even more incredible, stations on Highway 115â€"35, a major access to tourist country, started the weekend at the 36 cent mark, and by Monday several name companies were pumping at 32 cents â€" full serve and self serve. Gas war? Why? On one of the most heavily travelled roads of the weekend, the assumption would be that highway robbers would be out in ful} force, would it not? Just the opposite was true, however. Meanwhile, in Waterloo the prices continued to average around the 42 cent mark. Why? No supply? Too much supply? No demand? Too much demand? No competition? Too much competition? And even at that, the prices were down from midâ€"week averages of 44â€"45 cents, while points east have been routinely pumping for under 40 cents for weeks now. Is the whole idea to confuse the consumer to the degree that he/she will accept any affront to fair business practice with mindâ€"numbed passivity? Why is it we seem to protest everything but the kitchen sink, yet dutifully line up at the local pumps while operators pump our wallets? We can accept that in an increasingly unstable world market, the petroleum industry in Canada must feel like the proverbial yoâ€"yo, and that prices at the pump often reflect that instability. What we cannot accept however is that a) the roller coast has such erratic grades, and b) that for whatever reason, the people of Waterloo always seem to be paying that few cents extra per litre, translating into that few bucks extra each fillup. Is it because Waterloo is viewed as more affluent than neighboring cities and towns which regularly sell for less? Is it because we are indifferent to such treatment? Are we guinea pigs, object of a study to see just how much a consumer will take before fighting back? Because if we are, the time to fight back is now, and the best way to fight in this instance is through boycott. Purchase your petroleum elsewhere â€" Toronto, Guelph, St. Jacobs, Morriston, anywhere where it is consistently cheaper. It‘s time to sit up and take notice of this cavalier countryâ€"club approach to gasâ€"pricing â€" if for no other reason than to let area operators know if they keep it up, they won‘t have us to kick around any more. published every Wednesday by Fairway Press, a division of Kitchenerâ€"Waterioo Record Ltd., owner 225 Fairway Rd. S., Kitchener, Ont. address correspondence to Waterioo office f 45 Erb St. E., Waterioo, Ont. N2J 1L7, telephone 886â€"2830 Waterioo Chronicle office is located in the Haney. White Law Office Building (rear entrance, upper fioor) Parking at the rear of the building. Open Monday to Friday 9:00 a m to 5:00 p.m Not fair Publisher: Paul Winkler Manager: Bill Karges Editor: Rick Campbell established 1854 â€"â€"â€"It is written I had a doozer one time. My wife gave it to me. All right. Not that way. She was sitting in the car, waiting for me to carry the groceries into the house through the rain. Just as I bent and reached for the car door to open it and ask her if that was all, she opened it smartly from the inside to ask me why I hadn‘t brought out an umbrelia. Within a few minutes, the eye was the size and color of a bartender‘s beezer. But by the time we‘d finished arguing about whose fault it had been, it was obvious that I‘d live. Next morning, the orb looked like a purple golf ball. We patched it up as best we could, and I set off to face the wits. If ever you decide to do some research on the lower forms of wit, I can tell you how to go about it. Just get yourself a black eye. When the door nailed me in the eye, J thought I was a goner. My wife shrieked and ran straight into the house to see whether my "loss of limb or eye" accident policy was paid up. We didn‘t have a piece of steak, and if we‘d had, I doubt that it would have been sacrificed. But the Old Girl, bless her, dug out some hamburg that was going a bit blue, and made me lie down with a big hamburg poultice on the injured optic. The comments were hilarious. They ranged from the simple, dry brilliance of ‘"Hoo hitcha?" and ‘"Forget to duck, eh?" to the coy, insinuating, "1 knew she‘d catch up with ya some day." They ran the scintillating gamut from the inevitable, "I suppose ya ran into a door‘"‘ to the ineffably humorous sally, ‘‘Meet the former welterweight champ of the Smiley household." Right off the ice, it felt pretty good at that, and I dropped off to sleep, moaning but brave. During the night, the bandage worked loose, and when I woke in the dark, I thought the eye had fallen out. But it was only hamburg, all over the pillow . I came back with some real funnies myself. ‘"My wife," I replied. ‘"Footwork isn‘t what it used to be." I admitted. ‘"Yotta see the other guy,‘‘ I quipped. I can go along with a joke as well as the next bird. But after a while, in fact if 1 remember rightly, it was just after the fourteenth Hoo hitcha?", I began getting a little sore, I mean, fun‘s fun, you know, but, after all. So, when the next joker made his move, 1 told him, dolefully, that a maiden lady who didn‘t like my column had thrown acid in my face, and ‘"We now have here the capacity to bid competitively in the upgrading of radar systems around the world." â€"â€". AND FURTHER 70 MIICHAEL UNLSON‘S Emmanvcral curan . . _ * ’& p Black eye Bill Smiley Syndicated columnist Secretary of State Walter McLean announcing a new Raytheon contract. â€" SEE PAGE 1 â€"LETTERS I quickly disposed of an elderly lady, strong in the temperance movement, by informing her the injury had been received from my young daughter, when she clubbed me on the eye with a halfâ€"empty whiskey bottle. It‘s good sport. Next time the old troubleâ€"andâ€"strife hangs one on you, Jack, you‘ll know what to do. that I‘d never have the sight of it again. He turned green. My next customer was a woman, who tittered. *‘That‘ll teach you to write things about your wife in that column of yours." I gave her a gentle, sad look from my good eye, and suggested that she not let the divorce alienate her from my wife. I left her with her mouth open. Maill ride interpretation exaggerated Congratulations to the woman who complained about the police helicopter in Waterloo Town Square. She managed to turn a threeâ€"minute ride with the "police force" into a killing spree. Why didn‘t she stretch her imagination a little further, and suggest that they install a psychiatrist in a booth adjacent to this helicopter ride to deâ€"program these killer kids when they have completed their ride? While she was at it, she could have written the city of Waterloo to see if they would mind very much hiding their police cars in case they give kids the wrong idea. 1 noticed she didn‘t bother to point out the positive effect this ride might have like inspiring a youngster to become a protecâ€" tor of society; rather, she chooses to show a destructive obliterator of mankind. It appears from her letter that she herself associates the police with violence. It isn‘t the children I worry about, it‘s their parents!‘ And just what does she mean when she says "programming him to kill." Now, isn‘t that a sexist assumption‘! David Pieta Waterioo, Ont.