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letters School bus carries special cargo Dear Sir: I am a school bus driver and a very con- cerned parent. On the afternoon of Jan. 24, 1984 at the Sea- grave store I was stopp- ed with my flashers and stop sign activated. I was unloading students. Before I could do any- thing a 440 Ski-doo came up the right side of my bus. The fellow on the around the students and took off up the middle of the road and around the block. No one was hurt this time but you never know when a child will dart ahead of the group or turn and run the other way. This person is required to stop for a flashing stopped school bus the same as a car. I have spoken to members of the local they are as concerned about this as I and the company I work for are. The Snowmobile Club is more than willing to answer any questions that you may have con- cerning snowmobile laws. . This is not the first time that a snowmobile has gone through my lights but I hope this will be the last. PORT PERRY STAR -- Tues. February 7, 1984 -- 5 the PORT PERRY STAR CO. LIMITED } 235 QUEEN STREET Gin PO BOX 90. PORT PERRY. ONTARIO 108 NO (416) 984-738) Fa») J. PETER HVIDSTEN } Publisher concerning school buses Advertising Manager Member of the need to be advertised Canadian Community Newspaper Association more to the public. J.B. MCCLELLAND and Ontario Community Newspaper Association : Editor Published every Tuesday by the b The children lps Port Perry Star Co. Ltd , Port Perry, Ontario us are very spec CATHY ROBB | me. Please watch for News & Features Authorized as second class mail by the Post Office the yellow school buses with flashing red lights on the roads. We carry very special cargo. Yours in Safe Driving Mrs. Elaine Willerton Seagrave, Ontario Ya Conny ASN Ungp " @on o% 1\ SoA ERs as3OSIT Ye Department, Ottawa, and tor cash payment ot postage in cash Second Class Mail Registration Number 0265 Subscription Rate: In Canada $15.00 per year. Elsewhere $45.00 per year. Single copy: 35* machine whipped Snowmobile club and Apparently the laws remember when: 60 YEARS AGO Thursday, February 7, 1924 The annual installation of Officers at Old England Lodge, S.0.E. was held Tuesday evening. Two presen- tations were made: one to Bros. T.J. Widden of a fountain pen and the other to Bros. Wm. Etley of a Past President's Jewel. A sleigh load of Ashburn villagers attended the opening of Brooklin Continuation School on Wednesday evening. Arrangements have been made to have the band at the Rink every Wednesday evening, under the leadership of Mr. V. Stouffer. All wool serge in a wide range of colours is clearing at F.W. McIntyre's for $1.95 yard. 35 YEARS AGO Thursday, February 10, 1949 Winners in the costume parade at the Port Perry Public School Carnival included Sharon Haugen and Jack Wallis for Junior's Fancy Costumes and Barbara Love and Paul Peel for Senior's Original Costumes. Congratulations to Port Perry girls, Misses Donna Crosier and Edith Stone on receiving their nurses' caps at the Capping Exercises at the McLaughlin House, Oshawa on February 7th. A plane bound for Toronto from Fenelon Falls, landed on Henry Skerratt's farm in Utica, on Sunday, to get gas. 25 YEARS AGO Thursday, February 5, 1959 The Port Perry Senior Hockey League has just finished a six-game unbeaten streak and is now tied for third place. They will now attend the Tri-County play-offs and then they enter the All-Ontario O.R.H.A. Senior Play Downs. The Ontario County Junior Farmers' Association has entered the 2nd annual Inter-County T.V. Competition to be held over Channel 3 in Barrie. Monday night Constables Harold Hockins and David Kernahan stopped a car on Hwy. 12 and discovered $400 worth of copper wire from the Port Perry Hydro storage house. Charges of possession of stolen goods was laid on three men from Pickering, Highland Creek and Toronto. 20 YEARS AGO Thursday, February 6, 1964 Council voted a $200.00 payment be made to Mr. Chas. Brignall to subsidize the operation of the ambulance ser- vice in Port Perry. The Port Perry Girls Hockey team lost 6-3 while playing host to the more experienced Uxbridge Girls team. Linda Heayn scored all three Port goals with assists going to Vickie McCartney (2) and Sheila Kenny. Plans for a new Central School No. 3 to be built this spring have been presented to Reach Township School Board. The new school will accomodate the rural school population at Chalk Lake, Utica and Bethesda. 15 YEARS AGO Thursday, February 6, 1969 The new president of Port Perry Chamber of Com- merce, Ted Griffen received a hearty handshake from Mrs. E. Wood, the retiring president. The five directors were elected by acclamation: H. Mahaffy, G. Carnegie, A. Panabaker, B. Taylor and P. Hvidsten, all for a two year . term. Robert G. Lee of Port Perry was one of the 200 graduates receiving diplomas from President F.C. Jorgenson at the Winter Term Convocation held at Ryer- son Polytechnical Institute in Toronto. He graduated in Civil Technology. 10 YEARS AGO Wednesday, February 6, 1974 High winds blew down a wall at the construction site of Mother Jackson's Open Kitchens plant in Port Perry. Workers had been sent home at noon due to weather con- ditions so no one was ai the site when the wall was blown over at 2:30 p.m. The wall was 225 ft. long by 16 ft. high. Port Perry's Community Memorial Hospital has a new administrator. He is David Brown of Oshawa. Mr. Armour McMillan was made an honorary direc- tor of the Port Perry Agricultural Society at the annual meeting held recently. Mr. McMillan resigned as director on that occasion after having held numerous positions on the executive for 33 years. : bill smiley CANADIANS ARE BORING Canadians, on the whole, are probably the most bor- ing conversationalists in the entire world. I don't say that idly, merely to put backs up. I say it from agoniz- ing personal experience. It's not because we are a dull people, though we are. It's not because we're stupid, because we aren't. It seems to be based rather on a sort of philistinism that labels interesting conversation as a "cissy" pastime, fit only for dilettantes, idealists, Englishmen of a cer- tain background, educated Europeans and other such intellectual trash. Next time you're at a dinner party or any similar gathering, lend an ear. The dialogue will depress you deeply. Perhaps the real fault lies in the fact that we are basically a nation of materialists, and that we have become more and more so, with the withering of the churches and the increasing affluence of our society. Our topics of conversation change with the decades, but remain awesomely inane in their content. A few decades ago, men could talk for hours about cars and hockey, while women chattered incessantly about children and recipes. Nowadays, the men talk about real estate and boats, and women go on and on about Women's Lib and the trip abroad they have just taken or are just about to take. And they all say the same thing, or near enough. All of them, especially the men, are aborsbed by their vocations, the sadistic cruelty of the revenue department, and their latest acquisition, whether it's a power cruiser or a swimming pool in the backyard. Get a gaggle of editors together and they talk shop, golf, and how much advertising linage they carried last year. Seldom a word about a powerful editorial cam- ~ paign they are going to launch to halt an evil or promote a good. Dig up a deliberation of doctors, put a glass in each hand and listen to the drivel about iniquities of medicare, the ingratitude of patients, the penal taxes they pay, and the condominium they just bought down south. Not a Best nor a Banting in the bunch. Lawyers are just as bad. They may be a bit more sophisticted than the doctors, but they're just as dull. Dropping hints of inside dope on politics. Obsessed by the possibility of getting a judgeship or at the very least, a Q.C. Criers of the blues about the taxes they pay. A party of politicians is even worse. Jostling for at- tention, back-slapping everything that is warm and breathing, needling the enemy, seeing everything in black and white. "They're black: we're white." Behind the politicians but not far, are the civil ser- vants. Empire builders, defenders, of the status quo. Everything in quadruplicate. Everything secret. The public is the enemy. Always go through channels. Keep your nose clean. Don't get a black mark on your record. Dull, dull. Ah, ha! The farmers have been sitting back enjoy- ing this. They're every bit as bad as the rest. It's the government's fault. It's the chain stores' greed. It's the fickle public. It's the weather: too hot, too cold, too dry, too wet, or, if the weather is perfect and the crops are superb, it's taking too much out of the land. Business men are just as culpable of devastating dullness in their conversation. Too many forms to fill out. Lazy clerks. Second-rate workmen. Those dam' shopping Placas on the edge of town. Manufacturers are in the same boat. Wages are too high. Can't get parts, what's the matter with those peo- ple? Too much absenteeism on Monday morning. Pro- fit down .03 per cent last year. Can't compete with those lusy foreigners who work for peanuts. too much govern- ment interference. Dentists ditto. They are just as dull as the others, but they commit the crime of asking a particularly dull question when your mouth is so full of junk, that all you can do is grunt, and then think you are interested and agreeing with their platitudes, when what you are try- ing to say is: "Shut up, turkey," As you know, I always save the best to the last. When it comes to dullness suprémo in conversation, I have to hand it to the teachers. They go on and on and on about some kid who just won't do his homework, or some meaningless memo from the office, or some stu- dent who decided to spend a nice day in God's great out- doors instead of in a dull classroom with a dull teacher. Maybe I've been harsh in this somewhat blanket condemnation. Certainly none of my friends are dull conversationalists, Maybe that's why I have so few friends. Or, perhaps my remarks are based on pure envy. I haven't got a condominium in Florida. I haven't even a row-boat, let alone a cruiser. I haven't got a two-car garage. That's it. Jealousy. I don't have a swimming pool or a little place -- just 40 acres, mind you -- in the country. That's why I can't stand around with doctors and lawyers, etc., and commiserate with them, on the fact that the price of steak is going absolutely out of reach of the ordinary professional man who is making only forty-five thou a year.