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Womans - y TN AAI pid or SER Supermarket prices We got more of those funny calls last week. You know, the ones from people who wonder when we are going to, "have the nerve," to "expose" the way Supermarkets in town do business. The trouble is, the 'practices,' our callers complain about have already been 'exposed' at least a hundred times this year by other news- papers who obviously were short of things to write about, by radio, T.V., politicians"and the Federal Governments Prices Review Board. Despite all these crusading exposes the public does not seem at all concerned about the practices. Not that the public is not concerned about inflation. Recent meetings of the Scugog Rate- payers Assn., for example, have described the constantly rising costs of everything from news- print to butter. Last weekend the Ontario Anti Poverty Coalition conference in Toronto unanimously condemned the increases in bread prices that took place this week. The resolution was described by a number of delegates as, "motherhood." The fact is that the public, and your editor is included there, can not see how marking the current price on goods in a store is to blame for the problem. : Last week oread was four cents less than it is this week. It is therefore reasonable to expect that the price sticker on your bread at all stores says more than it did last week. If cookies are 50 cents today, but become 52 cents tomorrow | hope my grocer is an intelligent enough businessman to change the price on his stickers. Every other grocery store manager in the country will, and | would hope our local busi- nessmen are as aggresive as their colleagues in other towns. And | hope that he does not add to the cost of his items by having some employee who is paid by the hour, and whose salary must come out of the price | pay for cookies, take every box off the shelf and sneak down into the basement to reprice them, for fear our reporter will look over his shoulder and ask what he is doing. Let us assure the grocer that will not happen. We do not need to ask. It is obvious you are having the price brought up to date, because the cost of cookies has gone up. And we are not convinced that is the grocers fault entirely. Big daddy Nice newspapers, like nice politicians, we are told never use undiplomatic words like "'liar" to describe people who, uh, fail to respect the truth. With that in mind we would like to paraphrase former Prime Minister John Diefenbaker and suggest that the Provincial Government does not give the appearance of having a proper regard for the facts when it deals with regionalism. A year ago we were all told that regional government was necessary in order to bring local affairs back closer to the people. Queens Park, we were told, and told, and told, took most of the power away from local councils out of necessity, but would give that power back to a Regional council. Well, we have our regional council, and all the extra bills that came with it. . Queens Park announces that it is planning a provincial park expansion without talking to the regional council's planning department, a new city without talking to the"planning department, a new trunk sewer without talking to the works depart- ment, a new transportation system without talking to the roads department, a new set of hydro lines without talking to the works department, a new highway without talking to the roads department, a new . . ., well you get the idea. It is not possible for the region to plan Durham until it finds out what big daddy has planned, and big daddy ain't sayin'. We were sold a bill of goods, called 162. PORT PERRY STAR Company Limited P. HVIDSTEN, Publisher BRUCE ARNOLD, Editor J. PETER HVIDSTEN, Advertising Manager WM. T. HARRISON, Plant Manager Member of the Canadian Community Newspaper Association Member of the Ontario Weekly Newspaper Association Published every Wednesday by the Part Perry Star Co. Lid, Por! Perry, Onlario Authorized as second class mail by the Post Office Department, Oftawa, and for payment of postage in cash Second Clas, Mail Registration Number 07245 -- >_> Zp -- put BILL MILEY UGAR ano I WONDER WHO REALLY WON? I've just been reading a book about the Battle of Britain, written by Peter Town- send. He was a World War II fighter pilot and was in the battle himself. He's also the chap the royal family wouldn't allow to marry the then Prin- cess Margaret, because he'd been divor- ced. He was probably lucky. Later she married that pipsqueak photographer called Jones or Smith or something. He is now Lord Something-or-other. His wife is Princess Nothing-or-other. Anyway, it's an excellent book, for anyone interested in battles that have changed the course of history. Townsend has consul- ted a mass of material from both German and British records, and gives a balanced picture of the B. of B., looking at it from both sides of the English Channel. By the way, is anyone inter- ested in the battles that changed history, besides me and a few history buffs? There are quite a_few of them, and one must wonder what would have happened to history if the battles had been lost, not won. Atleast one of them has probably affected you, personally. If the Persians hadn't been slowed down - _ al Thermopylae and trounced at Mara- thon, they'd have wiped out the Greeks. Think what that would have done to the restaurant business in Canada. Not to mention Jackie Onassis' $20,000 a week in spending money. If Drake and his fleet had not beaten the Armada, half the people in Canada would be talking Spanish, eating garlic and going to bullfights. How would you like to b e out in a bullfight this afternoon (it's 15 below outside), sitting in the shady side of the arena, and shouting "Ole", at a bullfighter and a bull frozen, literally, into the classic stance of the bull-ring? And what about the battle of the Plains of Abraham? If the Limeys hadn't won that one, I'd be happily back in Ireland right now, cutting peat in a bog, instead of sitting here wondering how in the name of energy I'm going to meet my fuel bill. Go farther back. If Joan D'Arc (later St. John), hadn't lifted the siege at Orleans, there'd be no French, no Separatise Party, no Canadian problem. . Another dandy was the Battle of Culloden, where Bonny (retarded) Prince Charlie was heated "by the English. Instead of the Scottish invading England in kilts, (hey Srice were forced to invade with their brains, and they took over the financial affairs of the British Empire. Which, as we all know, are somewhat less than remarkable. Back home again, there's the Battle of Queenston Heights, which nobody knows much about except the residents of Queen- ston, and few of them. But this produced a great, pure, Canadian image, Laura Secord chocolates, without which Canada could probably not have maintained its integrity, nationality, and rotten teeth. The Yanks have theirs. The Alamo, for example. One of the most stupid affairs in history. (If anyone ever tells you that you are going to fight to the last man, throw away your gun and begin running in all directions, preferably at once.) . There was, of course, the Charge of the Light Brigade, which didn't change the course of anything. But it did serve as a lasting memorial to the utter stupidity of the British ruling classes. And from that war we did get the Cardigan sweater and the Raglan coat. Not to be sneezed at. Or on. Perhaps you have sensed my purpose in this little essay. Or, perhaps, like me, you haven't. Well, like, it's been a bad day, y'know, an v' take an' put your average Canadian up against something, and he'll come up with somethin, eh? Oh, yeah. I remember. I was wondering what would have happened if we'd lost the Battle of Britain. It would have been a Jolly Good Show. Hitler was prepared to make generous terms, and divide the known world with Britain. Pretty good deal, I'd say. But the obstinate, stupid British decided to fight. And even worse, they won. The Luftwaffe did not destroy the R.A.F., which had the privilege of being attached to me (or was it the other way around?) during the war. Result, Britain is sliding down the sluice - into economic anonymity. Germany is master of Europe, financially. It pays to lose wars. Germany and Japan, the big losers in W.W. II, are riding an incredible winning streak in peacetime. Italy won a short war in Abyssinia, bombs against arrows, machine-guns against spears. She's in her usual mess. France "won" two wars and is in chaos. Britain "won" tVo wars and _couldn't borrow a quarter for a pint of bitter. America "won™ two wars and the doar is about as health as a wel tissue. Maybe we should have lost the Battle of Britian 5 YEARS AGO Thursday, February 21, 1924 One of the best carnivals ever held in Port Perry took place Wednesday evening of last week. Prize winners in- cluded Dutch Girl Louise Carnegie; Canada -- Amy Beare: Leap Year Race -- Vera Roberts and Joe Naple. Mr. and Mrs. Horton, Mrs. Wm. Tummonds and her sister Mrs. Moore sent word to Port Perry that they are enjoying 'their holidays in Kingston, Jamaica; Nassau in the Bahamas and Ber- muda. They expect to return home in June. 25 YEARS AGO Thursday, February. 24, 1949 Miss Nellie Melnychuk, Scugog, has returned from Florida where she has been holidaying for the past month. She visited her sis- ters at the Head and Centre Schools where she related her travelling experiences to the children. The boy's Sunday School Class of Prince Albert en- joyed a sleighing party and lunch afterwards at the home of their teacher, Mr. Fear. Mrs.. John Venning, teacher at Egypt School and Miss Phyllis Gray, Black- stock School, with their pu- pils had a Valentine party in the form of a skating party at' the rink. The Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario is pleased to announce that the milder weather has enabled them "to meet normal demands for eleetricty at nights and on weekends but weekly daytime restrictions must still be enforced. 15 YEARS AGO Thursday. February 19, 1959 12 year old Bryan Reazin, Rrooklin and 16 year-old Bruce Bowman, Enniskillen, both made perfect scores of (continued on page 13) > 4 * $+ ll