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ne ------ SE yo EE a PORT PERRY STAR -- Tuesday, June 3, 1986 -- § Viewpoint by John B. McClelland MERRY MONTH OF MAY Most people just love the month of May. And why not? Summer is almost here, fishing season open, the lawn turns nice and green and the bar- b-q comes out of the basement. But me, I have come to dislike May with a passion. And this particular month of May that has (thankful- ly) drawn to a close, has been filled with all kinds of anxious moments. First of all, the first few days of May always get my blood pressure up a bit; One of my kids birthdays is May 4, my wife's birthday is May 12, our anniversary is May 5, and Mother's Day is somewhere in there too. I always seem to forget one or two, or get them terribly mixed up. I usually just buy one gift for my wife to cover the birthday, the anniversary and Mother's Day, then feel guilty because I think I've short-changed her. I' mean if her birthday was in January and our an- ny in September, she'd get three gifts from me, right? O.K. this May got off to a fairly good start. I got all the right cards and gifts to the right persons on the right day. So I was actually feeling pretty good about it all. But that was short-lived. On May 14, we had a death in the family. We were watching television that evening when one of the kids noticed that Hammy wasn't moving very much. Hammy is the pet hamster, a nice little guy who became part of our family on Easter Sunday as a gift - for the kids. The kids took to Hammy instantly, play- ing with him, talking to him and so on. Hamsters are not my all time favourite house pets, but I found myself taking a liking to Hammy. He never barked, he never got into the garbage, he just sat in his cage watching the world with his beady little brown eyes. Anyway, the night of May 14, I could tell by look- Ing at Hammy that he wasn't long for this world. He seemed to be in paralysis of some kind, lying on his side, his tiny feet curled under him. His breathing was laboured, his eyes half-closed. The kids felt very badly. I felt badly because there was nothing that could be done. Hammy was going down hill in a big hurry. Why, I don't know. The kids shed more than a few tears as they went to bed that night, knowing as only kids know, that Ham- my would be dead by morning. My wife and I tried to comfort the kids, telling them that all animals eventual- ly get sick and are taken by God to a better place. It didn't seem to do a lot of good. The kids were very upset and so was I. In the morning, sure enough, Hammy had breath- ed his last, and I had to figure out what to do with the body. I thought about burying him in the back yard, with a proper little "service," maybe even a marker of some kind. The kids wanted fo part of that. Matthew, my eight year old, who seemed to be more upset at Ham- my"s passing than the rest of us, insisted that I take the body for proper disposal at a veterinarian's office, of all places. I won't go into details other than to say that Ham- my was laid properly to rest. A day later, after a trip to the pet shop, another hamster joined the family, this one named aptly Hammy Junior. The kids still talk of the first Hammy, but they've taken to his successor quite nicely, too. That little crisis over, I began to think that I was going to get through the month of May with a smile on my face. Not so. Daughter Ann came down with chicken pox, and then on May 25 as I was attending the annual Minor Hockey meeting in the council chambers, I was informed that Matthew had broken his arm. "Oh, great, just great," I thought to myself as I left the meeting and raced up to the hospital. Sure enough, Matthew's left arm was broken just above the wrist. - After the x-ray, he was wheeled into an examining room in the emergency department. I was Viaiding on one side of the bed, trying to comfort him a little, then it happened. Suddenly, I felt very hot. The room began to swirl, my knees buckled and that's all I remember. I fainted, blacked out completely. I fell straight back, hitting my head on the stretcher beside Matthew's on the way down. When I came to, I was on the floor, the doctor checking my pulse, the nurse strapping on a blood pressure cuff. I felt like I'd been hit by a train. The doctor, the nurse and my wife helped me up on- to the stretcher beside Matthew's. I'm awake, but bare- ly. I still felt very funny. I looked over at Matthew, he's got the broken arm, remember, and he asks me if I'm 0.K. I felt like a real jerk. Here I was trying to comfort my son with a busted arm and I end up in a stretcher beside him. When I keeled over, my wife thought I was having a heart attack. : Anyway, I recovered from my fainting session. The doctor decided that because Matthew has a potential allergic reaction to anaesthetics, it would be prudent if he had his arm set at Sick Kids in Toronto. (Turn fo page 6) Yesterday's Memories 60 YEARS AGO Thursday, June 3, 1926 Miss Miriam Harris took third class honours in English and History and obtained her B.A. degree at the recent University examinations. Miss Elizabeth Allan took first class honours in Mathematics and Physics, and Mr. Harold Jackson passed his 5th year medical exams. 35 YEARS AGO Thursday, May 31, 1951 Good weather and 3,000 spectators made Port Perry Yacht Club Motor Boat Regatta a huge success. There were 36 power boat races. Mrs. Jeanne Dymond, local Regent of the 1.0.D.E. was guest speaker at the Port Perry Public School as Empire Day was observed. Mrs. Jonathan Aldred, R.R. 3, won the Horwich Jewellers Trophy for her display of Arts and Crafts at the Third Annual Hobby Show held in Oshawa. 25 YEARS AGO Thursday, June 1, 1961 The inspection party for the annual High School Cadet Inspec- tion this year were Maj. Painter, Capt. Barnett, Cadet Major Jim Read, Mr. and Mrs. Bill Beare and Mr. Ray Litt. Work began this year on the former Howard Motors building. It will be rebuilt for Hope's new 1.G.A. store. Donna Samells received her Bachelor of Arts Degree from the University of Toronto. 20 YEARS AGO Thursday, June 2, 1966 Miss Mildred Martyn received her R.N. from the Wellsley Hospital School of Nursing, and Jerrold Asling of R.R.1, Port Perry graduated from the Faculty of Dentistry. A Junior Farmers County team was picked in the Rifle Shooting Co-Competition to compete in the Quinte District Rifle Shooting Com- petitions. They were Ralph Honey, David Hawthorne, Murray Jones, Bob Robertson and Paul. Shier. The Scout Group Committee held a party to honour Scouters and Guiders in Port Perry, after a Court Whisk party at the Scout Hall, all went to the Flamingo Restaurant for a late dinner. During the evening a presentation was made to Mr. and Mrs. John Jefford who had been very active in Scouting and Guiding for 15 years. Mr. Jef- ford, a teacher at the High School here had taken a teachers posi- tion at Elliot Lake. 10 YEARS AGO Wednesday, June 2, 1976 Mrs. Jean Dymond, president of the Durham Region Lung Association was presented with the gold double-barred cross recently for her outstanding volunteer work. Port Perry High School elected their executive for students coun- cil for the 1976-77. Members of the executive are Karen Solomon, secretary; Jennifer Carrier, treasurer; Karen O'Reilly, president and Sue Kendell, vice-president. Becker's in the Lakeview Plaza was robbed at gunpoint at about 10:45 p.m. Wednesday night while manager Ken Irvine was at in O.P.P. seminar dealing with the increased numbers of break and enters in the area. Clerk Elaine Zystra was robbed of about $150 when one of the two men pointed a revolver at her. Lebtbers Life in the country, "sniff'"' Dear Sir: I no doubt shall be criticized many times for this letter on "offensive" odors, but compromise or turning the other cheek invites defeat. Just. how do you cope with livestock farmers, who makes a nuisance of himself with his animals? Remember a great deal of Durham Region is farming country. How do livestock farmers com- promise? Sell their pigs, cattle, chickens, all livestock, farm and just move away? We cannot all live in Scugog Insurance clarification Dear Sir: I have read with interest your ar- ticle in the May 28, 1986 issue of the Port Perry Star, and one previous issue concerning how your home and its contents should be insured. Being in the Insurance Business, I agree wholeheartedly with most all of your recommendations in these two articles, except for two every important facts. Your article states that you should make sure your home and its con- - tents are covered against fire, flood and theft - at the very least. I would like to point out that Flood In- surance (Surface Water) is not a peril insured against on a Homeowners Package. It is an ex- clusion on the Policy. Depending upon where your home is located, this coverage could be very difficult to purchase, and if the location were acceptable to the Insuring Com- pany, you more than likely would not need Flood Insurance. Flood should not be confused with rupture, or escape of water from a heating, plumbing or air- conditioning system, as these are covered on the Homeowners Package. The article of May 27, 1986 states that if you feel it necessary, you should also insure against other less common hazards such as ear- thquake or storm damage. It is my Township. Farmers who do not keep livestock have rights and objections as well as urban folks. For any reason should city people move to the country and live next to a farm, they must expect "'offen- sive" odors. It is only natural. How many city folks who move to the country have ever lived down-wind from a cattle, pig or chicken farm? Have they considered the results of what takes place when there is a heat inversion in July or August? A nice hot summer day. For some people to complain and opinion that storm damage is a very common hazard, and would like to point out that this peril is covered on the Homeowners Package at no ad- ditional charge, and is referred to on the Policy as windstorm or hail. There are mainly three forms of Homeowners Policies - Basic, Broad & Comprehensive - and a pur- chaser's choice would depend on the money he or she was prepared to spend, and the coverages required. But all three forms would exclude flood and include windstorm, unless the policy was altered. One should always keep in mind that all forms do have exclusions, and the exclu- (Turn to page 6) then go to court about reasonable livestock odors is simply outrageous. The recent New Brunswick court case in which a farmer has to pay $30,000 to his of- fended neighbours for smell com- pensation is insane. This farmer operates a livestock farm. Some ci- ty and town factories give out man made "offensive" odors, but do they compensate nearby residents? NO! The way many country folks see it and if city people would realize, we could have a happy solution. Live and let live - that is the answer. The way I see it, there is one answer to this odor nonsense. A tought right-to-farm law that cannot be broken by city slickers and their smooth lawyers and laws. Also farmers may have to accept a law on separating lots from their farms. Separation is a nice source of income now but the end results (persecution by urbanites) can be disastrous for a large majority of our country and farm folks. For health reasons I moved to . Port Perry. Before doing so, all my neighbours had farms. Sorry Mel. | know you help all my former farm neighbours. : Happy haying and plentiful crops. Yours truly, Roy Walker Smith, Port Perry. 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. We insist, however, that a letter writer sign his or her name. On rare occasions, we will agree to with-hcld publication of a letter writer's name, if we feel there are very good reasons to do so. 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.