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Newsmakers by Marion Sleep Patients confined to Huronia District Hospital have not been completely deprived of the Spirit of Christmas, thanks to the generosity and talent of Midland carollers. Arrangements for Christmas music at the hospital were made by the Hospital Auxiliary committee of Mrs. E. Addison, Mrs. J. Brown, Mrs. M. Luke with the cooperation of Superintendent Mrs. Jean Baker. Starting on December 6, with the Barber Shop Singers directed by Mr. Light, the program continued almost daily until Dec. 22nd. Musical groups included: 28 children from Monsignor Castex School, led by Susan Buckland on December 14, followed in the evening by Ltd. and Mrs. Wm. Bailey and a group from the Salvation Army. On December 15, program director Ann Tim- mons entertained with a group of carollers from the Y.M.C.A. Members of the United Church Choir led by Kay Mounteer brought cheery music to the hospital on Sunday afternoon. On Tuesday, December 20, Sister Mary and her Grade 12 carollers from St. Theresa School sang in the afternoon followed in the evening by the Brownies of the 5th Pack and 2nd Pack Guides, led by Mrs. Bourgeois. Mrs. Brenda Murray and her Grade 7 students from Huron Park School preceded the Penetanguishene High School Brass Section conducted by John Coull on Wed- nesday. The Baptist Church Choir, directed by Mrs. Joan Oster concluded the Christmas music program on Thursday, December 22. The Auxiliary extends Season's Greetings and sincere appreciation to all the carollers and musicians who so generously donated their time and talents to make the Christmas season a little brighter for so many patients. News briefs Turnout nil at ringette meeting An incensed Ron Marchildon said yesterday he'll have to organize the ringette league himself this year, because of a "'don't care" attitude on behalf of parents. The comment from Penetanguishene's recreation director resulted because of a meeting held Sunday. in an attempt--to organize an executive to run the league this winter. Nobody showed up. "T'll do the organizing myself,' said Marchildon who will be assisted by Leona Roberts. "I'll be going to the schools in early January to organize teams." Marchildon feels the interest in ringette is definitely there, as far as the players are concerned. 'The adults are the ones who don't care."' Local aviator receiving mysterious bills Tom Lembo, who operates Lemaire Air Services out of Huronia Airport, claims he has beer. mysteriously billed for landing and storage facilities for several planes that he doesn't own or lease that are in Inuvik, Northwest Territories. Lembo says up until Friday he was just sending the bills back to the Department of Transport because "'I don't relish the idea of paying someone else's bills." However, he says the last straw was when he received a bill for $63 for 10 helicopter landings. Lembo says he doesn't own a helicopter and never has. On Friday he phoned the Department of Transport and asked them to look into the matter. Lembo says somehow, the planes have apparently become registered to his name. He explains that normal procedure for landings, is to check the number on the plane against the registry. Therefore, he says the planes must be registered to him, or he wouldn't be billed. Lembo says there are only two ways that the planes could have been registered in his name. He says a year ago he leased planes from Yorkland Aircraft. At this time the planes were put in his name. He says these could be the same planes and there could be a hold-up in changing them back over to Yorkland's name. However, the lapse of a year makes him suspicious that this isn't the case. Lembo says the only other way they could be registered to his name is illegally. He won't make any accusations, but says the Department of Transport are looking into it. Non-teaching staff and SCBE reach pact Non teaching staff employed by the Simcoe County Board of Education ratified on December 11 an agreement reached between their union, C.U.P.E., and school board negotiators. Among the main points of the one-year contract is an overall wage package that amounts to an increase of 5.8 percent over the previous contract, a provision allowing the union to file grievances in the context of a collective bargaining unit, and increase of the stationary engineer allowance from 15 cents per hour to 25 cents per hour. The contract also includes added fringe benefits, such as an increase in Group Life Insurance benefits to no less than $6000 per employee, three weeks of paid vacation after four years of employment with the Board, four weeks of paid vacation after 12 years of employment, and a provision which allows for a re-scheduling of paid vacation should an employee be on sick leave for at least two weeks prior to his planned vacation. A further provision allows for an employee to receive pay for days missed due to "unreasonably unsafe travel conditions." " ie Penetangquishene arena floor fund 7 Although activities with the Arena Floor Fund are at a standstill over the holiday season while people cope with buying Christmas presents and parents pay for hockey registrations, the arena itself is a hive of activity. The new brine cooling system was given the spark of life yesterday to cool the new concrete floor to below freezing temperature. The rink will be flooded this morning if no problems develop in _ the pipes or cooling plant. Fingers are crossed that everything goes as planned and the Chemical Valley Jr. C Kings are able to open the arena with their first home game of the season Monday night. Parry Sound will be the® opposition, beginning at 7:30 D.m. Kecreation director Ron Marchildon said public skating will definitely be offered next Friday night, but he may try to sneak a few extra hours of \ skating in during the week. \. "It depends on the thickness of the Pyne © 6 ee ee 8 Be ry OY 6 eer rt ew 6 6 0 Er FS OF FG FOL OE I LEO EOI SOI OO The Friday Citizen Distributed free each Friday to every Midland and Penetanguishene household/ 20c on newsstands Vol. 1, No. 34, Friday, December 23, 1977 CC CE EOE POEL OLE OC ELE EC ECTS Real Estate and Homes Section inside $10,000 for 100 acres CNR accepts Tiny's bid for abandoned railway The Canadian National Railway has agreed to accept Tiny Township's offer of $10,000 for the purchase of the abandoned railway land, stretching from Penetangui- shene to the Tiny-Flos border. Tiny offered $10,000 for the 100 acre stretch following an October 27 council meeting. CNR's asking price was double that figure. The agreement must still be authorized by the CNR executive. "A letter has been received that they've (CNR committee) recommended to their officials that they accept the offer," said Guy Maurice, Tiny Township clerk-treasurer. The township's offer is binding so all that stands between a completed transaction is CNR official approval. The township will also be responsible for covering legal costs of the sale and in repairing bridges, fences and cutting much of the underbrush along the narrow stretch of land. "We expect a considerable amount of work," said Maurice. Tiny is unsure where the money for the restoration of the aban- Questionnaire not designed to be perfect: Irving Harris "T'm not quite sure how to read what they're doing," concluded Irving Harris, referring to a motion passed by the French Language Advisory Committee, requesting the construction of a French high school for use in 1979. "They seem to feel the questionnaire is not going to accomplish much." Harris, chairman of the internal evaluation team responsible for the co-operative evaluation project of Penetanguishene schools, said he'd decline comment on FLAC's request until the Simcoe County: Board of Education is officially presented with the committee's proposal. He did say, however, that FLAC's criticism of the questionnaire doesn't take into account subsequent study that will be initiated once the survey results have been computer tabulated. "No questionnaire can be perfect," he explained. "'What we're proposing to do is use it as a guideline, using follow-up ac- tivities to fill in the gaps." These follow-up activities will include interviews and public meetings with area residents. "T feel they thought it would answer all the questions. We never felt from the beginning it was designed to do that." The dissatisfaction voiced at last Thur- sday's FLAC meeting is the first official word from the committee that they're unhappy with the project, according to Harris. "As a committee, they haven't expressed displeasure to me," he said. 'As individuals at least one has expressed disappointment." doned right-of-way will come from. "It's been indicated we may qualify for grants from some ministries." Among the uses for the land discussed at The children at Penetanguishene General Hospital seemed to take a visit by the old gentleman himself in stride on Wednesday. Investigators by Dave Wilson Two officials from the Ministry of the Treasury, Economies and .Intergovern- mental Affairs met with Victoria Harbour petitioners and senior Harbour council members, Wednesday in an interview which has been described "'relatively peaceful" but inconclusive. . The meeting was designed to gather in- We apologize The Penetanguishene Citizen en- countered mechanical difficulties this week which resulted in late delivery by our carriers. We apologize to our readers for this inconvenience and hope that it is un- derstood that the delay was in no way the fault of our hard-working carriers. The Citizen appreciates the un- derstanding of its readers this past week. yn, Contemp informal talks prior to making the offer to CNR were plans to use it for horse trails, nature trails, for cross-country skiing or be utilized in the widening of County road six. fF * ¢ Despite a booming round of ho-ho-ho's by Santa, five year old Albert Copecog hid his excitement. Albert is among four children at Fn lating Christmas goodies "We had many, many discussions of what the land could be used for," Maurice said, "but our main interest was in keeping it in public ownership." PGH that may not be able to gather around the tree at home this Christmas. Staff photo probe Harbour squabbles formation concerning a petition circulated among Harbour ratepayers, asking that the provincial government accept the short-lived resignations of four harbour councillors submitted September 27, and call a by- election in the municipality. In Attendance at the meeting were petition organizers Doug Jackson and Alex Smitten, Harbour Reeve Theo Bernard, Deputy Reeve Ralph Gray, and Paul Spears and John Rowland, representing the Ministry. All those in attendance agree that its most significant result was what appeared to be evidence of the ability of the two often an- tagenistic factions to discuss matters in a business-like and orderly fashion. Beyond the meeting's civility, said petitioner Doug Jackson, only issue to be resolved was the question of public access to village records. "We were assured by the Reeve that we can have access to any information in the village offices, except documents relating to current legal litigations. I was very happy with this," Jackson commented. Other issues Among the other issues that were touched upon, said Jackson, were the question of the regisnation in 1975 of former village clerk Don Eplett, the financial operations of the Harbour medical centre, the August firing of village foreman Fred Miller, and an alleged harassment of Reeve Bernard by village ratepayers. According to Jackson, none of these issues were resolved, nor was the question of the petition, now in the hands of the government. "Thad hoped for some indication about the status of the petition, but they had nothing to say about it," Jackson said. Reeve Bernard admitted that the meeting did not accomplish much, beyond the providing of assurance to the ratepayers that village records would be made publicly accessable. Bernard felt too, that the meeting's orderly nature was in itself significant. "Tt's hard to assess the talks, except that Jackson and Smitten now understand that we have to carry out our mandate, and that this harassment and character assassination just won't work. I think they realize that if they want to fight us, they'll have to get out of the gutter and meet us head on, said Bernard. One youngster's first Christmas-circa 1644 by Barbara McConnell As Aiandacé (Eye-an-day-say) stamped through the snow-laden forest, he watched the shadows play on the deep snow. It was a wonderful morning. ¢ The trees he passed stood close together and towered high above him. They were very old compared to his eleven winters of life. The trees were barren of leaves now, their brown branches reaching like long, thin fingers toward the sky. As last night's snow melted on the branches the wetness sparkled. Aitndace watched the sparkles and the beauty of them made him happy. Other light sparkles added to his joy this particular morning. Since leaving his village of Kaontia at sunrise he had seen many sun spirits dance on the snow crystals. It was such a nice way to start this special day. Aiandace tested the weight of his snowshoes. As the sun grew warmer, the surface snow on the path melted and Aian- dace's snowshoes became heavy with wet snow. He stamped one snowshoe against the other to shake the packed snow loose, then he hurried to catch up to his parents. His 'mother was carrying a large bundle containing some things they would need over the next few days. Tariha, his baby sister was tucked into a warm, fur pouch strapped to his mother's back. Tariha was sleeping. know what good it was to have a sister, if all she did was sleep. Babies were quite useless, he thought, until they were old enough to play games with him. His parents prized Tariha very much because in his country, girl babies were better to have then boy babies. But parents loved him very much. as was the custom. He pulled a small sau covered sled upon which warm clothing, bedding and cooking pots had been packed. Food would be supplied by the blackrobes at the mission, for their corn harvest had gone well last summer. ) te," he said. "'We don't want to bring in 0 kids if the ice is only one-quarter ch thick." Tribe which was part of the Ouendake nation. They lived near the great bay of the large lakes. The French missionaries called She slept most of the time. Aiandacé didn't Aiandacé didn't mind this, he knew his Aia'ndacé's father walked first on the path Aiandacé and his family were of the Bear Alandace's people "Huron Indians". The missionaries were strange men. They had no families, spent much of their time alone, ugly hair grew out of their faces and they wore long, black robes winter and summer, even when it was very, very hot. They had an incredible instrument called a clock that spoke the time of day, and they even had a strange name for this passage of time. They called it 1644 Aiandacé didn't know what 1644 meant but he knew that since his parents converted to Christianity two winters ago, he had to learn as much as he could about the French and this new faith. For example, he knew today was the day before Christmas which was the anniversary of the birth of Jesus. He was curious to know if, like his little sister, Jesus slept all the time when he was a baby. He would have to ask a blackrobe when he reached the mission village of Sainte-Marie among the Hurons. Sainte-Marie was a half a day's walk from Kaontia and they were almost there. Aiandacé could hardly wait to see his favourite blackrobe, Father Brébeuf. The Father had promised Ajandacé and the other children a very special gift this Christmas. They would be given this gift Christmas morning after they had answered the priests' questions about the Christian faith. The question period, Aiandacé understood. It was not only a French custom. Quendat children were questioned in much the same fashion after being allowed to listen at tribal council meetings. As Aiandacé and his family approached the entrance to Sainte-Marie they were greeted by a blackrobe and invited to settle in the longhouse within the high palisade walls. They joined other families who had come great distances to celebrate this Christmas. Before a late-afternoon meal of corn soup, called sagamité, and a bit of dried fish, Afandace ran off to explore the mission community. He looked into all the buildings including the sleeping places, the cookhouse, hospital, carpenter's, blacksmith's and shoemaker's shops, he climbed bastion lookouts and chased funny French birds called "'chickens" around the courtyard. He stayed away from the strange animals called "cows" and "'pigs". They were just a little bit frightening. That night Aiandacé and his family went to midnight mass. The priest wore colourful clothing which shone and sparkled in the candlelight. Oh, the candles. Aiandacé was fascinated by them. The light filled the room and gently danced on the walls. Some French things were really quite wonderful. AiAndacé tried to concentrate on the mass. Though he could not understand what the priest said, he knew it was a language called Latin. As soon as mass was over Aiandace went off to bed, excited about Christmas morning "ey a | Ne - Paul Lalonde receives $50 from Glen Bryant just in time to do some last minute Christmas shopping. Paul was this week's winner in the Christmas comes early and the special gift he was to get. The chickens speaking to the morning sun awoke Aiandacé. His mother had corn cakes ready for his breakfast and then he went off to join the other children in the Church of St. Joseph. Father Brébeuf was there with some other blackrobes. They began asking questions about the midnight mass and about the Christian faith, which Aiandac® and his friends answered perfectly ; well almost. The priests handed out rings, small pictures, rosaries and prayer books to the children for learning their lessons so well. cont'd p. 4 | Brew hs de 4 contest that will result in a couple visiting the Bahamas. The grand prize draw takes place tomorrow. Staff photo