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i a Yesterday's Memories 60 YEARS AGO Thursday, April'15, 1926 Port Perry suffered one of the most severe losses in history, when the combined High and Public Schools $65,000 property was complete- ly destroyed in a spectacular fire which lasted for three hours. The school was built in 1873. School will continue in the basements of various churches until a new school is built. Here is a quote from the Star reporter's description of the fire: "It was a wonderful spec- tacle. The roaring furnace of flame, situated as it was almost the highest point in town, lit up the countryside. The walls had been splen- didly built, and retained fire like the sides of a huge furnace. The flames would leap high above the walls, where the wind would at times catch them, and whirl them forward in quest of new fuel." 35 YEARS AGO Thursday, April 12, 1951 Dr. M.B. Dymond was the guest speaker at a well attended Vimy banquet held in the Del's banquet hall. Members of Whitby Fish and Wild Life Club defeated Port Perry Rod and Gun Club by a score of 462 to 381 in a shoot-out. The Port Perry members were A. Brock, Aylmer Ploughman, E. Geer, H. Davey and D. Anderson. : Mrs. J.A. Hardy was elected president of Honeydale Women's Institute for the year 1961. 25 YEARS AGO Thursday, April 13, 1961 Port Perry soloists receiving high marks at Sunderland Music Festival were Dianne Hall, Christina Rice, Lynne Peterman, Lois Summers and Trevor Kendell. New Hamburg defeated Port Perry 8 to 3 in the opening game of the Ontario Hockey Association Junior 'D' best of seven finals in New Hamburg Tuesday night. Mrs. William Stephens was elected president for 1961-62 at the Scout Mothers annual meeting. 20 YEARS AGO Thursday, April 14, 1966 Ratepayers in Port Perry received a substantial reduction in the 1966 mill rates. Domestic rate went down 10 mills and commercial rate 12 mills. Thanks to the fine efforts of firemen from Port Perry and Ux- bridge, a large barn on the Lawrence Medd Farm at Epsom was sav- ed from destruction including animals, implements and crops. How the fire started is unknown and damage to the barn was very light. Lake Scugog ice 'went out' on Wednesday, April 6, the earliest | since 1957. 10 YEARS AGO Wednesday, April 14, 1976 C.A. Glass received a medal from Royal Canadian Legion Domi- nion President Bob McChesney for being a member of the Legion for 50 years or more. On hand for the presentation at the home of PORT PERRY STAR -- Tuesday, April 15, 1986 -- § Letters Rabies is serious business Dear Sir: A passive, lonely and hungry dog comes into the subdivision. The children being compassionate and caring, feed and play with the dog. Where is its owner? Three days later it has met and visited almost every child and animal in the sub- division. Indeed, someone should have taken the iniative to call the dog control, I can only guess each of us was hoping someone else would, or that the poor dog would find its own way home. Where is the owner? Don't they care enough to keép it at home. We all have our dogs chained, to make sure they don't roam. My guess is they would have cared enough had they been able to see the impact this animal would have on so many lives. Today, by ac- cident, 10 days later, we find out this animal has been put down and con- firmed rabid. Eighty percent of the people in this subdivision had con- tact with this dog either direct or New school welcome Dear Sir: There has been much debate recently concerning the issue of a new school locating in our present Fairgrounds. I would like to say that I am very much in favour of a new school in the fairgrounds, and I know many mothers from the north-end of town who are also in favour. My interest is two fold. I live only a couple of houses from the fairgrounds and have two children who would attend the school. I have driven my children to and from R.H. Cornish school for several years for safety reasons. It will be a relief for myself and them to be able to walk without concern for the congestion and traffic around the high school. survey then would not have been unanimous (letter to the editor, April 8, 1986). Sincerely, Melody Moase, Rosa Street, Port Perry. through their children, our animals tied outside, were all sure to have had a visit from our stray friend and how many more? : What did our authorities do to pro- tect or inform us *'nothing." It was only through our own persistance that we finally got some answers. The non-chalent, we can't do anything attitude came through loud and clear. As a result our children and many adults are on inoculations and our dogs are being quarantined, the numbers, increasing daily. And to think it was only by accident we found out about this in the first place. Rabies is serious business and none of us stop to think of its magnitude until it hits close to home. Yours truly, Karen Diceman, Cawkers Creek. Letters to the Editor ... our policy It has always been the policy of this newspaper to encourage our readers to make use of the letters to the editor column. Our readers have a right to freely express their opinions and view- points on just about any subject, and we feel that a lively letters column helps make a better community newspaper. I also believe the new school will compliment the area and improve the appearance of our end of town with much needed new sidewalks and roads. I am sorry that I was unable to give my opinion to the '"'Save The Fairgrounds Committee"; their We insist, however, that a letter writer sign his or her name. On rare occasions, we will agree to with-hold publication of a letter writer's name, if we feel there are very good reasons to do so. RT Under no circumstances will this paper print an anonymous letter to the editor. : While we enjoy receiving letters from our readers, we must continue to insist on knowing the identity of the writer. and Phil Cochrane. ) Mr. Glass was Branch 419 president Ed Mulholland. : Ed Mason was made a life-member of the Royal Canadian Legion at the Old Bills Night celebrations on Saturday night. Port Perry Midgets brought home the All-Ontario Midget "'C"- championship defeating Lambeth. Members of the team are: Stuart McQuade, manager; Chap Jones, coach; Stuart Cochrane, Mike McQuade, Gord Hintze, Mike Healey, Colin Wackett, Bill Bridge, Terry Flieler, Bill Haynes, Larry Lee, manager; Rob Griener, Steve Jones, Charlie Durward, Merle Schewaga, Bob Evans, Mark Evans Yes, Spring is here Dear Sir: Sure hope you had a wonderful Easter, worshipped at the place of your choice on this lovely Spring weekend. You may wonder about Spring? The dust is flying from our road- ways, garbage and doggie dropp- ings in the ditches and beside our roads now the snow has left (I hope) and people are out walking more. Mothers out with their babies in their carriages, children walking or riding their bicycles to and from school. Please motorists drive a lit- tle slower and be more alert at all times now. I have seen pairs of Doves, Canada Geese, Red Wing Blackbirds, Robins, Herons, Kingfishers, Starlings, Killdeer and many country canine have been sprayed by skunks. Oh yes, the sap is running, (pancakes and maple syrup) and last, but not least, those lovely beef suppers at our local halls. Some newcomers' to our Township have been l.card to claim that we are the warmest, friendliest, helpful people they have ever met, which no doubt may be quiet true. The reason being volunteerism is the backbone of any organization or Township you may live in, it is your choice. You see we get oyr volunteers in many different ways -- "but we do get them." Some may volunteer because they are part of a family of volunteers, some because of affiliation with their lodge or church, some because it is expected of them, others because of pressure at work and others, because they are curious whatever the reason, people are usually there because they care and through volunteering can make things better for other people. Remember -- we only live once. Life comes a moment at a time, and if we work it right, that is, the way to live it. Hope you feel better now Spring is here. Roy Walker Smith, Port Perry, Ontario. P.S. Yes, | made a promise. The beard comes off. Junior C Hockey fans in Port Perry should be pleased with the announcement that George Burnett and Ed Olsen will be coaching the Mo- Jacks in the 1986-87 season. Both George and Ed are well known in this community, played hockey in Port Perry as youngsters and then had pretty good careers at the collegiate level in Canada and the States. Coaching at the Junior C level is a tough task. First of all, a lot of players who were good Ban- ~ tams and Midgets drop out of the sport by the time they reach 17 or 18 years of age. Many Junior C players are attending college or university, or are in their final years of high school and must get the grades to get into university. For them, school has to take precedence over hockey, and rightly so. Still others are just entering the work-place, and often they work shift. It's kind of hard to tell the boss you want to miss work because of a hockey practice or game. And then there's the motivation factor. Most guys who play Junior C are not going any further in their hockey careers. The next stop for them is the recreation league on Sunday mornings. It must be tough for players to keep themselves "up" for 32 games, and even tougher for the coaches to keep the guys totally dedicated and motivated game in and game out. I'm not being critical of Junior C hockey, far from it. I have covered Junior C hockey for this paper for the last eight years and have seen some extremely exciting games during that time. I've games that won't go into the record books for excitement. In short, George and Ed have their work cut out for them when they ice a team next season. I sincerely wish them well, and I have a feeling they are going to produce results. Junior C hockey should have a place in com- munities like Port Perry. But let's face it, hockey also seen a few duds, too. But I've seen a few NHL KK Mm Viewpoint by John B. McClelland GOOD LUCK, GUYS! fans want to see two things when they go to a Junior C game; they want to see good hockey and they want to see their favourite team win a few games, perhaps even challenge for first place and do well in the playoffs. . George and Ed are both serious young men and they will bring this with them when they go . behind the bench. They have been exposed to a lot of hockey over the past few years and obvious- ly, they have some knowledge of the game. I'm confident they are prepared to work very hard in coaching the MoJacks. Again, best of luck, guys and have a great season in 86-87. GOTCHA Two weeks ago, in the April 1 issue of the Port Perry Star, we carried an interesting article on page three about the Great Canadian Post Hole Co. It was of course, an April Fool's spoof and we made that very clear in the final paragraphy of the story. I've had more than one comment about the article and several people said they more or less believed the story, until they read the last paragraph, of course. One local businessman told me he was com- pletely caught: off guard but was called to the phone before he finished reading the article. Later that day, he began to ask his colleagues about the story and felt slightly sheepish when he was told it was just a spoof. I did have one irate reader take me to task for printing such garbage when there are more important things that should be in the local paper. As the editor of a small-town paper for more than a decade I learned a long time ago that you will never please everyone no matter what you do. IN CLOSING: There is an article in this (Turn to page 6)