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: | fs 3 letters Ld ae El Le PORT PERRY STAR -- Tues. January 22, 1985 -- § the Not against al merchants Dear Sir: In the words of a once-famous politician '"'let me make this perfectly clear." My. letter of January 7th was not intended and should not be construed as a complaint against all merchants in Port Perry. The item being returned for exchange "was an item of sleep- wear, the trim of which caused an irritating rash around my neck and shoulders. I enquir- ed of the store the name of the manufacturer \ / and-or wholesaler so that I could return it to 'them at my expense, and, perhaps, avoid for others any similar incident in the future. The name of the manu- facturer and-or whole- . saler was refused me. How confusing. The policy of the store in question is the issue - and the only issue. I think what is important is the spirit of the policy as opposed to the letter of the policy. Other merchants have generously offered to exchange these items. Sidewalks treacherous Dear Sir: Our residentail side- walks are downright treacherous. Seniors and mothers with young ~ children are having a terrible time negotiat-- ing sidewalks in our neighbourhoods and it is only a matter of time before a person gets seriously injured. The recent snow and ice storms has brought to the forefront the woefully inadequate removal of snow from our sidewalks. Complaints and fines have proven futile. The fact is, many residents and businesses do not clear the sidewalks. of ice and snow and I do not see the situation changing overnight. Perhaps the time has come for the Township to provide sidewalk snow removal for all citizens. After all, the sidewalks are public property and we have every right to expect this type of basic service. At present, I pay a ~ young person to remove our Snow. For seniors and the handicapped people check with Scugog Community Care 985- © 8461, a small fee is charged. Roy Walker Smith Port Perry, Ontario "Although I declined, 1 "most recently, John Arbuckle has developed heart E PORT PERRY STARR CO LHMUTED 233 QUEEN STREET A A 20 80K 0 PORT PERRY ONTARIO . LO8 INO , (410) 98% 738) [| (ech Cn with my stand. appreciate the concern of the Chamber of Commerce and feel that, for the most part, other merchants agreed Yours truly, Shaaron Rensink Pate chatterbox J.B. McCLELLAND Editor and Ontario Community Newspaper Association." ~ CATHY ROBB News & Features Al ~~ RR2 Ro Port Perry. YO A\ ol «Q od Pers as305 cs (=. | J. PETER HVIDSTEN Publisher Advertising Manager « Member of the Canadian Community Newspaper Association Published every Tuesday by the . - Port Perry Star Co. Ltd, Port Perry, Ontario. Department, Ottawa, and for cash payment of postage in cash. A Second Class Mail Registration Number 0265 oY% 3 Elsewhere $45.00 per year. Single copy 35¢ omy \ © COPYRIGHT -- All layout and composition of advertisements produced by the advertising department of the Port Perry Star Company Limited are protected under copyright and may not be reproduced without the written permission of the publishers. Authorized as second class mail by the Post Office Subscription Rate: In Canada $15.00 per year. by Cathy Robb ~ (From page 4) not sure exactly how much has been donated to Matthew's parents so far, I'd guess it's been at least $15,000. Simply fantastic. Now Ivan and Margaret Geer can stop worrying about the cost and put all their concentration into their son and his strug- gle to get well. And now, in Nestleton, there's another group of beautiful people who are attempting to help so- meone else. John and Lynn Arbuckle have had more than their share of bad luck in the past few years. One of their three young children has leukemia. Their livelihood, their barn, burnt down to ashes. And problems. Their only good fortune is living in a com- munity where people look after their neighbours as if they are kin. A trust fund has been set up at - the Royal Bank for donations of all sizes, and a benefit dance has been slated at Nestleton Hall, February 9th. Frank Barkey will DJ, the Court Lady Snowbirds will supply a buffet lunch and various other organizations are helping out with other details. Tickets are $5 each and available by calling Arlene Malcolm at 986-4409. Knowing what the community is like, I know the Arbuckles, like the Geers and the Cookes, are in good hands. EDITOR'S NOTE: For once, I agrée totally with Robb's column. Scugog Township may not be perfect, but it's a pretty darn good place to live. And it is the people who make it so. Rabh has hit the nail on the head. on it? editorial comments (continued) little while through some strong back-room arm twisting and negotiating, and once the joint finally opens in 1987, it will be a great boost for the economy of downtown 'Toronto. But let's be frank. The people who will patronize the place week in and week out from April through to the end of football season are the sports fans of southern Ontario. And any hope they might have had for a stadium with easy vehicle access and acres of parking, is out the window. Sports fans in Ontario are not much different from those south of the border. They like their cars and they like to drive to the game. But their likes and dislikes don't matter much when decisions of this kind are made. They are finally getting the dome, and for that they should be grateful, no matter where the thing is located. As for the cost, a lot of people will argue that $130 million might be better spent on other things like low cost housing. And it does seem like a lot of green. But Toronto needed a new stadium, anyway, so why not put a roof As for the location? Well, it's better than nothing. But if you thought getting to Exhibition Place was tough, just wait til the new joint opens. " 4 [id bill smiley REMEMBERING MY TEACHERS I was saddened by the fate of some teachers, who Isn't it odd how well we remember our teachers: the old battleaxe who whacked us over the head with a pointer; the math teacher who never scolded, but roll- ed his eyes to the heavens when you put your answer on the board; the sardonic art teacher who would sit down beside you and polish up your "painting" which was the same one you had done last week and the week before? I remember distinctly almost every teacher I ever had. The only one I almost really '*had" was my high school French teacher, but she was too fast for my gropings. Some I remember with warmth, some with sadness, some with pity, and a few with hatred. I think that's about par. \ Until she died, I corresponded occasionally with my Grade I teacher, who still thought of me as a sweet lit- tle boy with big blue eyes. She kept an eye on me through this column, and occasionally remonstrated with me about my choice of language. One of my favorite high school teachers has done the same, and we keep in touch. Every so often, I receive a letter from a former stu- dent of mine. I have yet to get one that was not warm. Those who hated me can't write letters. Warm letters are one of the rewards, intangible but important, that a teacher receives. Have you ever written to your old minister? What about those other nouns: pity, sadness, and hatred" I pitied a few: my other old French teacher who used to put her head on the desk, and weep loudly and wetly, when we drove her over the edge; a Science teacher witha Ph.D. a good and kindly man persistent- ly bullied by some cretins in this class. sickened or died or became mentally ill under the unrelenting pressure of the classroom. ' Hatred? I never hated those who clobbered me or strapped me or bawled me out. There was only one teacher I hated. He was a flying instructor with a per- manent sneer, a hectoring manner, and not a decent bone in his body. I swore I'd kill him some day. I still half-hope that he crashed in a stoney field while bully- ing some frazzled student pilot. And the student escaped with a bloody nose. All my other flying instructors were tops. These vagaries came trickling into my skull-bone when two of my favorite university profs were featured in the newspapers recently: E.J. Pratt and Northrop Frye. I have neither written either a warm letter, but have always had a feeling of warmth and awe for each. E.J. "Ned" Pratt was a gentle man and a gentleman as well as a scholar. Son of a Newfoundland minister, he worked his way into the groves of academe, and became one of Canada's "great" poets. I use 'great' in the sense of vast, grand, epic. Pratt wasn't interested in the usual preoccupations of modern poets; examining his own navel; imitating, badly, the poets who lacerate society, who are still hung up on Freud and sex, who think that ugly is beautiful with a few four-letter words tossed in. Rather, he chose big themes, and had a gift that enabled him to make them into works of art. He was either behind, or ahead of, his time. The building of the C.P.R., the martydom of the Jesuits in Huronia, the evacuation of Dunkirk, the sink- ing of the Titanic; these were the massive bones on which he built, with consummate skill, his epic nar- rative poems. At the same time, he was capable of writing the | most tender, delicate lyrics, or such precise pictures as "Shark™ which many a student has studied in high school. As a professor, he was a delight. He didn't give a diddle about such nonsense as attendance, and when he went dreaming off into Shakespeare, or one of the great poets, his dreams and insight rubbed off on his students. - He personally wrote for me a recommendation that I be accepted into graduate school, after another _pro- fessor (by the way, I still hate him), had refused. I believe he thought that because I was a veteran, | deserved a chance. A decent, lovable man. Northrop Frye, a generation younger, but a close friend, colleague, and admirer of Pratt. was another cup of tea. He was no kindly, gentle, elderly scholar and poet. He had a mind like a well-honed razor, an in- telligence and learning that used to make us wince, and a brilliant lecturing technique that drew crowds from all over the university. He has emerged as one of the finest critical minds of this century, at least in North America. He has pro- bably converted more people to his theories than Jesus did in his limited time. His disciples, rather watered down, have spread across the land. In lectures, he had a cutting wit that reminds one of the Ghurka soldier who took a wipe at a Russian with is kukra (blade). The Russian laughed, "You didn't even touch me." The Ghurka replied, "Yeah? Don't shake your head." Yet '"'Norrie" Frye, too, behind the scintillating mind, the scathing wit, was and is (and I speak from personal experience) a gentle, sympathetic person, to who each student is a treasured human. He is intense- ly shy, away from the podium, but intensely decent, as a human being. I can only be humble when I remember that I, one of the great unwashed, intellectually, was exposed to these fine minds and persons.