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'PORT PERRY STAR -- Tuesday, April 11; 1969 -- 7 THE HEADACHE | had planned to devote this column space to a personal problem | encountered one night last week, April 3 to be precise. The problem was a beggar of a tooth that stan- ed acting up just before mid-night. By 4:00 AM it was like the Texas Chain Saw Massacre taking place inside my mouth, reducing me to a sleepless, simpering mess, pleading with my wife to either call an ambulance or find some way to put me out of my misery. Seriously, for a while | actually contemplated asking Joan to conk me on the head with the old iron frying pan. Looking back it was Propaby st as well | didn't. She had been awake half the night listening to me moan and groan and probably was in just the right frame of mind to grant me my wish. I've had tooth-aches before, lots of them. But this was the BIG ONE, the grand-daddy of tooth- aches, and it caused me one miserable night. Relief finally came shortly after 8:00 the next moming, in the dentist chair when Dr. Jack (bless him) squeezed yours truly in as an "emergency." | foaly was an emergency, believe me. He took an X-ray and decided the tooth had to go (which was fine by me) After shooting my mouth full of pain killer, he [obped out the culprit and 20 minutes later, | was ack home flaked out on the living room couch, yom whence | did not stray too far the rest of the ay. The next day, | felt much. better, thank you very much. Tooth-ache was gone, but picking up Viewpoint by John B. McClelland the morning paper, | instantly started to develop a head-ache. Seems our friendly minister of finance up there in Ottawa, fella by the name of Mike Wilson, is wor- ried about the national debt. He should be worried, for the debt now hovers somehwere around $320 billion, and this year alone there are predictions the gaismiment will spend $32 billion MORE than it es in. Anyway, Mike is bringing down a budget later this month and Ottawa is a-buzz with rumours that the game plan this year is tackle the deficit. This is where the head-ache starts. Rumours are that Mike and his good ol' buddy Brian from Baie Comeau want me to help pick up the tab. They are going to zing us for $5 billion extra in taxes this year, and if that isn't enough to start the oid temples throbbing, you must have just won a ery. Yep, taxes are going up: income taxes, busi- ness taxes, and of course the old tried and true fa- vourites: tax on booze, smokes and gas for the family wagon. Geez, there's even talk of a new uni- versal sales tax, including a bite on your weekly grocery bill. . Now, the old head is really pounding. Makes that tooth-ache from the night before seem like child's play. Well, not really, but you get the picture. Are we going bananas in this country? The feds are in hock by $320 billion. Dave Peterson and his gang down there at Queens Park are under the gun 'cause they don't have any more dollars for roads, hospitals or school boards (they seem to have plenty of dough to courier press releases to this newspaper in English and French, but i don't have the dough to hire enough staff or hos, tal emergency departments. Oh well, as along as the "do not enter" sign on the Hosgha door Is in both official languages, everything's OK) But I'm getting way off topic here. The feds and the province are out of money. At the local level, Scugog Township and Durham Region are getting set to hit you with a hefty hike in property taxes (not to mention the school boards) Will it ever end? How did this country get itself in such a financial pickle? This thought was go through my mind as | sat through a long meeting 0 Regional council last week. The Region just shut down the dump in Scu- gog-and doesn't have a clue where we are going to | put our garbage this time next year, but last week, councillors agreed to push through with the 911 emergency dialing system for all of Durham. Don't get me wrong, 911 is fine. But at what cost? In Durham, just setting up the equipment is going to gobble up $1.7 million of your tax dollars, plus another million or so each year to run the sys- tem. This is at a time when the Region is staring at a. 27 per cent tax hike in 89, when the Region is jumping its lot levy rate nearly 100 per cent, and when any Regional councillor worth his/her salt is crying the blues that there ain't enough dough in the bread box to fix the pot holes in the roads. Yes, we are going bananas in this country. We are being taxed off the face of the earth at all lev- els. No wonder my head aches. Letters to the editor Remember Whent 70 YEARS AGO : Thursday, April 17, 1919 Life Insurance Companies accept only the very best or risks. Their records show that one out of every nine is rejected. The applicant must not only be in good health himself but his family history must be satisfactory. A death in the family from con- sumption, cancer or insanity may render it impossible for one to obtain insurance for years if ever. At the Head Church, Scugog, on Thursday, April 14th, a light - comedy will be given at 8:00 p.m. entitled "Bill the Coachman," after which a box social will be held. The farmers are busy on the land, some of them well on their way through seeding. 435 YEARS AGO Thursday, April 20, 1944 To save paper, and type metal in wartime, important changes have been made in the arrangement of the new tel ne directory for Port Perry. , . John Murray, Mrs. M.B. Dymond, Mrs. L.R. Bentley and Mrs. Stewart MacFarlane attended the Provincial Conven- Hon of he 1.0.D.E. held in the Royal Connaught Hotel in n. Mrs. N.P. Aldred received a cable from her son, Flight- Lieutenant Joel Aldred of the RCAF announcing his safe arrival overseas. 35 YEARS AGO Thursday, April 15, 1954 The Port Perry Hockey Club has on sale now in Port Perry tickets for a 1954 Two Door Sedan Chevrolet. The proc from this draw will us finance our Rural and Minor Hockey set up. A lot of nisged a very fine Show by lint loizing those who attended the first skating carnival of the Port P and Oshawa Skating Club. The program was well pl ' | Among the gang from Oshawa, Don Jackson 'brought the | house' with his antics as '"The Thing." ' . | ; Special attention to little Miss Margaret Terrett for her solo 25 YEARS AGO Thursday, 16, 1964 Ice on Lake Scugog finally left in the early hours of Tues- | day, April 14th, 1964. : The Women's Curling Club honoured their past ten (Turn to page 11) Asks where will the families live? To the Editor: I am writing in regards to your article on March 28th re: Parking - By Laws under fire. Yes, I feel we need parking in Port Perry but at what cost. My concern is where do the families go. The ones that are or have . been evicted from their homes and can't find affordable housing to rent. On Casimir St. alone, at least 8 to 10 families are having to move, most right out of Port Perry Dear Port Perry: Were have you gone? The town I have loved for so many years has gone. I moved my family here eight years ago because I grew up as a country boy and I wanted my children to share in that experience. Many of my big city cousins disbelieve that on my first day in beautiful Port Perry, I was able to write a cheque in a local building supply store, without so- much as having to show my drivers licence. Like many other non native Port Perryites, I moved here because of the kind of town it was. Weloved it! | But Port Perry is no longer the town we fell in love with. Residential and industrial development are rapidly devour- ing the heart of Port Perry not to mention the surrounding agricultural lands and wildlife habitat, 1 know that many of us were im- with the speed and effi- ciency that one developer used to wipe out one piece of Mother Natures handywork - along with On a personal side we are fin- ding it very difficult. We are a one income family and can't afford a high rent. We have children in school who have only two months left this year and will have to change schools. One is in her last year and will miss her graduation. We have all heard of the homeless. But until you have liv- ed it, you really don't understand. Well we do, we have been there changing the deer - to give us our latest sub- division south of 7A which I like and you can believe, you whole life changes. Mentally and emo- tionally. We were fortunate unlike so many others. Port Perry became our home for the past two years. Now that's all ending and 'we will have to go back to a tent trailer. All because of parking space. In ending, I would like some answers from anyone. Where is this town going and where do families and stable home life begin? Also, I would like people to look around at what their beautiful town is turning into. I am soon to be an outsider. You are the ones who lose, because your home could be next. Think about it. to call "Vinyl Village." Talk Yours truly, urn to Wendy Kirk hurt topes 8) Port Perry Smile For The Day