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wxt wtiitxm the tribune thursday december 18 uk r i i i i i i j don i i i i i established 1s8s i charles h nolan j pnbllshtr 5 rfrv1rd pobldhm evry tboruur it 54 mla st slouhvllj oct tel 42l barre beacock toronto pkoo mmim susie copies me subscriptions i00 per ytr la achertisine manager tajior cnjdimelmwntrt member of aedfl bureau oi circoutioa canada jin community newspapers association and ontario weekly newspapers association second class mail registration number mm nsi the tribune is one- of the inland pimushina co limited group o suburban newspapers which includes the aiaxwhitbypickering news advertiser brampton guardian burlington post etobicoke oaiette marfcham economist and sun newmarkevaurora era oakvilie beaver oshawa this week and mississauga news town abandons dump bylaw council is rapidly developing a reputation for being wishywashy in our view last weeks decision not to proceed with legal action against york sanitation should go a long way toward enhancing this dubious distinction tiie court case was not heard because of a minor technicality in the serving of the warrant and in no way reflected on the validity of the bylaw this seems like a capitulation before the battle had even begun and calls into question councils sincerity in opposing the dump a great deal of money has already been spent on the environmental hearing in drafting the bylaw and in preparing the groundwork for a fight in the courts by giving up this easily it seems council is just throwing this money out the window many people in the community felt the money should not have been spent in the first place but to proceed this far and then quit places council in a totally untenable position this expensive course should not have been embarked on in the first place unless council intended on battling through to the bitter end councillor merlyn bakers position we feel is the most inconsistent mr baker has said his original reason for running for council was to oppose the dump and yet be supported the motion not to proceed through the courts in a similar case uxbridge successfully fought a provincial policy on gravel pits to the supreme court of canada and won there is still time to buy the original and interesting unicef christmas cards for this year they will be on sale at the whitchurch stouffville public library until dec 20 these are two samples of some of the note cards available this yearthe one at left is boy blowing bub bles by dutch painter fr van mlerls while at left is floral still life by a bosschaert transportation study needed ra bible thought forthe from the living bike how prosperous israel is a luxuriant vine all filled with fruit but the more wealth givebeiy the more she pours it on the altars of her heathen gods the richer the harvests i give her the more beautiful the statues and idols she erects the hearts of her people are false toward god they are guilty and must be punished god will break down their heathen idols then they will say we deserted the lord and he took away our king we dont need one anyway hosea 10 13 opponents of the proposed pickering airport as well as those that favor the project will greet the creation of a federal- provincial committee to study transportation in southern ontario with open arms the study was announced by james snow provincial minister of transportation and communications last week the minister is quoted saying that the pickering airport will be considered as one option the statement in itself raises the question of thejprovincial governments avowed op- position to the project after all the province has never come out against the airport itself the cifcinet merely stated that the provincial goverrient would refuse to pay for services for the facility in other words mr snow and the study group must consider the airport in their deliberations certainly the project is very much alive as long as the freeze remains on the land in the noise areas only if the freeze is lifted will the airport be dead the opponents of the airport feel that any study of transportation in the metro toronto area will reject another airport and insist on more efficient use of the present facilities at malton be that as it may mr snows statement seems to suggest that the federalprovincial committee will consider all the transportation options open to it if it does a proper job the committee is compelled to do just that such a study is sorely needed homemade presents rewarding a tough fight ahead inflation seems to be the topic on everyones lips these days notwithstanding the present yuletide season and we like to see that the school board the region and the local council plan to use the federal guidelines in setting their 1976 budget ago this week t excerpts from the tribune t from december 20 1945 robbing the cradle authorities here are wondering if the recent raids on local clothes lines are in directly caused by the dire shortage of childrens underwear anyway raiding clothes lines is something new for stouff ville yet it has happened twice within recent weeks at one residence childrens vest and a quantity of diapers were taken during the dark hours of the night while at another home a childs coat and underwear with long legs were removed from a line in the rear yardof the home the mother in this latter case told us the clothing had hung out for three days because unfavorable i weather failed to dry the garments in future she promises herself that such i garments will notbe left on the line over- night not while there is such a shortage of childrens goods at any rate when thieves v resort to stealing napkins and vests meant for newly born babes it is a simple act of robbing the cradle and the perpetrator if caught would be awfully ashamed of such a charge being laid we imagine remember the bell ringer s i who recalls when stouffville employed a town crier like the towns of old england if was about 1895 that one of the sons of henry obrien went around each evening up and down main street ringing a bell and merchants when they heard ic pulled down their blinds business was over for the day and it was a case of who could get their blinds down first but let us not remember that the federal guidelines do not apply directly to regional and municipal employees the antiinflation board does not have direct jurisdiction as far as can be ascertained thus far the provincial government has made it clear that grants will not be forthcoming to keep the mill rates down this means drastic cost cutting at the local level certainly some services will suffer in such an economy fighting inflation requires determination but it also requires willingness to sacrifice this attitude seems to be unfortunately lacking in the present situation every group c seems to feel that each other group should be fighting inflation this lack of concern makes us wonder about local regional and school board budget dimming public acceptance could prove to be very significanthere from the experience so far teachers and postal workers the general public is not seriously concerned with fighting inflation in that atmosphere limiting budget in creases will take courage we hope our local politicians are up to such a difficult task cnib fund drive should succeed the local lions club has fallen short in its drive to raise 2500 for local facilities for blind people the funds are to be used to provide for people in the area who have eyesight problems under the auspices of the canadian national institute for the blind the local project would include some six blind or almost blind residents of whitchurch stouffville the project is certainly a worthy one the shortfall is about 500 on the funddrive we hope that the local project will not be scrapped because of the lack of funds it seems to us that the last 500 can be raised and that the planned project should go ahead just a little more work and a few generous donations are all thats needed for success the lions club is wellknown in town for its success at fundraising and we hope the cnib service will go ahead as planned there is a wellknown cliche about christmas and you still hear it from people it goes something like christmas is too commercialized nowadays this attitude is quite prevalent in our day doing something about it however is harder than grousing about the problem more and more people feel that christmas is too commprcialized but few people seem to want to do anything to take the commercial emphasis out of the season in fact most of us finally give in and blow a bundle on presents albeit reluctantly s last yeari said to myself that i would have to do something to avoid this problem myself while i was only partially successful my efforts have expanded this year my idea certainly not an original one was still to give christmas presents but to add a more personal touch i would make them myself as it turned out that was easier said than done firstly making something is more tune consuming than going out to a store andbujjngsomething makmga gift also requires thought and planning however the benefits are also great the person receives an original handmade gift that has obvious value because someone took the time to make it you can see that this type of approach is more personal and i might add more satisfying for me well enough of the philosophical background lets get on with the presents themselves last year was a relatively small start my wife needed a serving tray and i designed and made one for her it was then i realized that other women on my christmas list would appreciate such a practical but attractive gift the prechristmas season is a busy one but i managed find the time to make four of thetrays they consisted of a flat piece of plywood covered with vinyl material and trimmed around the four sides the other handmade gift consisted of flat board with some names burned into one side using one of the cheap woodburning kits a maple stain and a coat of urethane complete the plaque last years efforts did not deal with all the presents on my list i did have to buy some of them but it was a start bigger and better things were still to come i thought v this year i started earlier and made more careful plans in the meantime i had acquired a number of labor saving tools thus making possible more ambitious projects a radialarm saw has proven to be of major assistance in this regard my first decision was to expand the use of woodburned plaques for this purpose i decided to do plaques with bible verses which would seem appropriate to the person it was intended for johanna and i went through our list and found short scriptures for each per son she designed the lettering on the wood and i did the burning a total of seven of these will be given away this year the plaques are timeconsuming in the extreme because it takes a long time to burn the letters into the wood luckily we started quite early in november and managed to make good progress a spare hour here and a spare hour there took care of the wood- burning staining and finishing them was a relatively simple matter after that i must say that very little skill is involved in the woodburning it just requires time to complete at the writing they are not quite complete but the end is in sight the other gifts stemmed from some promises i had been making my wife for some time she wanted a spice rack and a spoon rack for small souvenir tea spoons these also seemed like naturals as christmas gifts and would not be too difficult to make after some careful figuring and purchase of appropriate wood the major work began by don bernard as the first spoon rack took shape i was surprised how easily it seemed to come there were a few mistakes and some spoiled pieces but in one evening i had one spoon rack assembled the first two were quite monstrous and each holds 34 spoons the third one was more modest having space for 22 spoons after they were assembled the stain work was left to be s done but more of that later t the spice rack proved to be a trickv proposition it seemed to require straighten cuts and more exact fitting than the spoon racks unfortunately i did a little too much planing and the rack only barely holds spice bottles but it looks good and holds quite a few of them at the writing of this column the first coat of walnut stain is on the woodworking pieces and they look reasonably good 1 i cant tell you how the people will like these homemade items t but somehow it doesnt matter all that much the enjoyment was in the making and giving them not really lin the finished product still i remember last year when i gave the trays i was the most excited one when they were unwrapped i guess because they were a part of me and something of myself was into them j i dont feel thisjsjthe whole answer to what ails christmas but it is the first time that i have tried to avoid the real commercial rush of the season and for me it has been a rewarding experience my projects arent complete yet but the excitement has started to mount 3 they are simplegifts by materialstan dards thespoon racks are not an ex- pensive item ina store the plaques are even less expensive but values are certainly misplaced in our society no price could really reflect the time effort and if i might say love that goes into the gifts j it probably sounds corny but i am sorry i did not think of it sooner c 2 sugar and spice i family reunion time and cousins by the dozens that line from an old nursery rhyme or something seemed to be the theme when the thomson clan held a family reunion at- the old homestead on a beautiful day in october there was a lot of kissing and hugging were an emotional family i was bussed and squeezed by a lot of middleaged ladies and made up for it by heartily bussing and squeezing a number of extremely bussable and squeezeable nieces and daughters of nephews and various other attractive young hussies drifting about fthe desolate scene of a partially snowcoveref gravel pit is an eerie one indeed at this photo shows the shadows and cliffs with a greywhite color coam pass for a scene on the moon or some other such rocky and i 1 y empty planet the gravel pit equipment in the upper lefthand corner of the picture gives it away however y z t v john montgomery most people have been sucked in at one time or another to a family reunion it can be a ghastly experience or a joyful one this one fell into the latter category there was no mourning for the dead only a great sense of being alive and the pleasure of knowing that all these people of all shapes and ages were blood kin all sprung from the fertile loins of one walter thomson an irishman of scottish extraction away back there in the 19th century walter was prolific and his sons were no slouches either one of them mountain jack thomson a sometime scourge of the ottawa valley during the great lumbering days had about 10 children by his first wife and when she died married her sister and produced another large family another william after whom i was named sired 10 children and there was the last of them my uncle ivan 84 dancing around like a 30yearold welcoming all of us with something close to tears of joy in his eyes hes as handsome as always slim as a boy blue eyes sparkling wit bubbling striding about as though hed never heard of arthritis a man of many talents a con servationist who plants trees lovingly a traveler whose next letter might be from new zealand an artist in working with wood a deep lover of nature and people and a con cerned and loving patriarch of the clan it is my casual boast and my brothers and sisters grudging concession that i itake after him i wish i did he remarried at 80 and has a threeyearold grandson figure that one out no way can i match that he snowed me the room in the old brick homestead a fine house on a steep bluff overlooking the ottawa river the bedrooms in which my grandmother bore- the 10 children no wonder she died at an age when most modern women are just getting their second wind or their second husband by bill smiley he showed me a picture of his family at the dining table at the head my grandfather j i white hair and huge curly beard on one side four strapping sons on the other side three daughters and two little sons and an empty place set for emerson a maverick who was in the mondyke when the photo was taken how would like to try to feed a mob like that in these days youd be bankrupt in aweek f another picture showed my uncle ivan as the sole surviving member of the shawviile pontiacs taken in the days when hockey was deadly serious but played for fun and shawviile used to journey by sleigh to take on the stalwarts of renfrew and pembroke i 1 perhaps sadly there was no living to be made for huge families on the barren land of calumet island and the tribe dispersed soma of the boys joining the great exodus to the west the el dorado of those days they were honest hardworking good- looking gregarious people but it wasnt enough they established themselves and worked like slaves to build something then came the depression and they suffered boy how they suf fered all of canada took it in the neck but the7 praire farmers took it in the neck and in the guts and in various other parts of the anatomy most of my uncles went through the great war many of their sons went through world war ii some didnt come back v things picked up some of them even made a decent living before they died their children are moderately well off middleclass people with warm hearts and no pretensions but theyre fiercely proud of being thomsons and dont ever try to spell it with a p we have no truck with the poor white trash thompsons with a p7 i