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4 -- PORT PERRY STAR -- Wednesday, May 21, 1986 LR rh, \{ 1 Comments A Disappointment The vote taken last week by tho Port Perry Agricultural Society «not to surrender its lease with the Township was a disappointment. We have stated in the past why we believe that moving the Port Perry Fair to a new site adjacent to the Scugog Arena over the next 18 months could have been a good thing. However, the vote was duly taken at a public meeting and 22 of 39 persons eligible to cast a ballot on this sensitive issue decided it was not appropriate for the Fair to give up the lease and move at this time. So be it. The decision has been made and we accept that decision. There are a couple of things that we sincerely hope will happen over the next few weeks and months. Firstly, the issue of a new school for Port Perry. The Durham Board of Education must do everything in its power to find an alter- native site in northwest Port Perry for a new school that will be built and opened in 1987. We understand that other sites may now be 'made available to the Board and this must be explored and pursued to the fullest. The citizens of this community have been waiting patiently for a new school to help alleviate the crowded situations at the two ex- isting schools. Since the proposed site at the Fairgrounds is not available, the Board must simply pull out all the stops to find another site. It would be a travesty if the $2.1 million grant ear-marked for -a new Port Perry school in 1987 was pulled and spent elsewhere. Let us hope that the Board of Education staff and elected trustees give top priority to finding another site. Secondly, we hope that the directors of the Port Perry Fair Board and all those people who are connected with the Fair in any way, will pick up the pieces of this unfortunate issue, and get on with the job ~ of running the Fair. : There have been some bad feelings created and we hope that these will ease in a hurry. The Fair has been an important institution in this community for too many years to see it seriously damaged over this issue. There comes a time to bury the hatchet, and not in somebody's back. By the same token, we also believe that the Fair Board must con- tinue with the job of preparing for the day when the Fair will indeed move to a new location. One of the main arguments in this most recent dispute from the opponents of the move was that things happened too quickly, there was not enough time to plan properly for the move or find out what the cost would be, and so on. The day is coming when the Port Perry Fair will have to move. itis inevitable that the 22 acre Fairgrounds will be developed by the municipality. The time to start preparing for that move is now. Some serious planning at this time might very well prevent a recurrence of the flap we have just witnessed over the last several weeks. As we said at the outset, the decision not to surrender the lease is a disappointment. And while we accept that decision, we would like to remind our readers that much more than just the moving of a Fair or the location of a new school was at stake. The 22 acres of Fairgrounds are owned by the Township of Scugog. The Township has had preliminary development plans prepared which show 55 residential lots plus unspecified higher den- sity development like an apartment or town homes. The development of the Fairgrounds land conservatively could have netted the (Turn to page 6) the t J. PETER HVIDSTEN PORT ALERT STAR CO LIMNTED 13 Quetm stent 20 #02 %0 PORT MARY ONTARO LO8 »O (4%) 905.738) (*cCha (OY) cnt | Member of the Publisher Canadian Community Newspaper Association d Ont C ty N A t and Ontario Communi ewspaper Association Advertising Manager Published every Tuesday by the McCAE Port Perry Star Co Ltd , Port Perry, Ontario J.B. LLAND Editor Authorized as second class mail by the Post Office Department, Ottawa. and for cash CATHY ORS payment of postage in cash News & Features Second Class Mail Registration Number 0265 = nC a ~Os Onn veo x o% ip a Array ay30% Subscription Rate: In Canada $15.00 per year. Elsewhere $45.00 per year. Single Copy 35° ©COPYRIGHT -- All layout and composition of advertisements produced by the adver tising department of the Port Perry Star Company Limited are protected under copyright and may not be reproduced without the written permission of the publisher TURN OFF . ... 6LUG! THE BUBBLE MACHINE ....6GLUG ! ...6Le! » : in "Ny p fans b - --- Te a 2 -~ BESS TEX - ps - WIE - - ! 4 a a wa 3 2 , Ne STAR, _ Yi NS . y J A - NE a \ oe. 2 i Ol LER > Ar EOE NLA ME \ ACHE NOM NER wT CY 4 pi IN WEAR ARETE L L ) Gg Chatterbox by Cathy Robb THOSE SWITCHBACK BUH-LUES I can't believe I'm mourning a TV show. I've always been snobby enough to think I'm too good for TV and have looked down my nose at television addicts, as is proper etiquette for all dedicated TV snobs like myself. Still, there is a tear in my eye and a choke in my throat every time I think of the dearly departed Switchback program. Oh, it'll return in the fall, unless CBC decides to cut it completely as it has CBLT Morning and other assorted TV fare, but in the meantime I'm sadly without my favourite Sunday morning addiction. I switched Switchback on one Sunday morn- ing by accident (it was either that or a choice bet- ween church programming or Italian TV) and I've been hooked ever since. Actually I couldn't believe my eyes when I first saw Switchback. I had turned the boob tube on halfway through the program and was faced with the spectacle of a gel-slicked host named Shawn Thompson throwing a Ken doll over. Niagara Falls in a Kentucky Fried Chicken barrel. "Ma!" I yelled at my mother in the kitchen. "Get in here, you've gotta see this!" The doll was nicknamed "Kendini" in reference to the famous magician Houdini, and ar- rived at the edge of the falls in a souped-up Bar- bie camper with Barbie and Mr. T dolls at his side. With much pomp and circumstance the doll was handcuffed by a policeman with two sets of miniature handcrafts and placed in the bottom of the barrel. He was then covered with a few choice pieces of Kentucky Fried Chicken and a thick layer of macaroni salad ---- in case Kendini got hungry on his trip over the falls. The "'barrel" was then wrapped up in a gar- bage bag, equipped with a special flotation device, and tossed into the water. Seconds later, the great Kendini plunged over the falls in the tradition of generations of barrelers. The crowd that had gathered for the event waited with bated breath as host Thompson (wearing a special Kendini World Tour jacket) communicated with the Maid of the Mist via walkie-talkie. Would Kendini survive the dangerous stunt? Could he escape the locked handcuffs and eat his way out of the chicken and macaroni salad? The crowd stirred restlessly. Thompson spoke urgently into the walkie- talkie. "What IS this show?' my mother said disgustedly. "SHHHH!"' I hissed. At that moment a shout rose from the crowd. - Thompson rushed over to an assistant who was triumphantly waving a barrel of Kentucky Fried Chicken in the air. Without further adieu, Thompson tore off the plastic bag and the lid of the barrel, revealing Kendini, sans cuffs, chicken and macaroni salad. '"'He made it!"' Thompson shrieked, and the crowd went wild. Not only did the great stunt doll make it over the falls, but he also managed to free himself from the cuffs and eat all the stuff he was surrounded with. As the crowd cheered, Thompson was quiet- ly led off by Niagara Regional Police and charg- ed with littering. The amiable host grinned as he was placed in the cruiser. When the hour long show ended I was still smiling from ear to ear. "What WAS that show?" my mother asked, disturbing my revelrie. "Ireally don't know,' I replied, but proceed- ed to look it up in the TV listings. In the Starweek magazine it was described as a kids' video show, but after watching one episode I knew it was much more than that. Sure, it had a few music videos mixed in, but those were few and far between, and by far the worst part of the show. And while it might have been designed for adolescents, the humour and imagination injected into Switchback makes it fun for kids of all ages. I used to sleep in every Sunday morning, but after enjoying one episode of Switchback, I woke up every Sunday faithfully at 10 a.m., no matter how late I was up the night before. And once I pointed out the program to my fiance Doug, he too was hooked. Every show features something unusual, something different, whether it's a zany ice follies with characters like Fred Flintstone or Barney Rubble, or a mutt show with dogs dressed up like Mr. Canoe Head. On one episode the show's mascot, a plaster Fred Flintstone, had disap- peared so a sleepy cream-soda addict similar to Nick Nolte's character in the movie 48 hours was hired to track Fred down. His search led him to Bedrock (in Canada's Wonderland) where he ran into Barney, and to a bowling alley, where Barney outplayed the detec- tive at every turn. Maybe the show loses something when I describe it, because it IS pretty indescribable, but I can't say enough about the people who put Swit- chback together. It's got more creativity and im- agination than any Saturday Night Live or Second City show I've ever seen, and while some of the humour is so dry it leaves you groaning, it is still genuinely funny. i Se. pT IR IN uy oll BRE enh