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the tribune thubsday july ul he isribune john montgomery editor established 188 charles h nolan publisher bar re beacock advertising manager eoltoblal oept aaaefret itam keitn beteader display aovestisimc oept lots wxteman an ones business office jwmmluia doreea deacon eileen glover published every thursday it s4 main st smuftville oat tel mohoi toronfo phone ml mm smote copies mc subscriptions ill 00 per year in caudt s2 00 elsewhere member ol audit bureau ol circulation canadian community nmpmn association and ontario weekly newspapers association seciwd class mail registration number 00 the tribune is one ol the inland publishing co limited oroup el suburban newspapers which includes the auxwhalbypickeruia news advertiser brampton guardian burlington post etobicoke oatette markham economist and sun newmarket aurora era oakville beaver oshawa this week and mississauga news 6402100 3611680 editorial just a few suggestions the soontobe tradition of massive celebrations in honour of canada day got off to a good start in stouffville this year the various individuals organizations and service clubs that worked together to make the day a success should be feeling pretty satisfied with their handiwork at this point for a firsttime event everything was wellorganized and functioned smoothly special mention should be made of the legwork of tom wood and charlie warden who were the two men mostly responsible for getting the ball rolling hopefully the canada day events will become a yearly occurrence and by a process of trial and error the program for the day will be honed to perfection at this point we would like to make a few 30 years ago this week excerpts from the july 8 1948 issue of the tribune cheap beef it looks like reduced beef prices are here to stay for awhile at least for the remainder of the summer a survey of butchers confirms the housewifes resistance to exorbitant prices combined with the warm weather are responsible prices of blue grade a top brand of beef hit 74 cents a pound in toronto today the same grade is selling for anywhere from 59 to 65 cents a pound and at least one retailer predicts that the pound of beef is going down to 55 cents insome stores in the city v buyers resistances left t in turn the butcher andthe packer with abnormal sur pluses of beef my cats what a trick one of the meanest tricks we can think of was put over last saturday evening when a couple of halfstarved looking cats were dropped by somebody on the main street thats a mean way to dispose of innocent animals that are not wanted far better to drown them at home than to cast them out to suffer and be abused in a strange placethis is not the first time cats have been dropped in the town by outsiders who havent enough decency to dispose of their animals in the proper way when they do not want them taxes down notwithstanding that the village council- on monday evening made a grant to the stouffville veterans welfare fund of ap proximately 750 the tax rate for stouffville was struck at one mill less then last year after a reduction of one mill on the general lax rate the net tax will be 36 mills as against 37 in 1947 total assessment 756155 population nears 1500 positive suggestions to the organizers not to be critical but perhaps to help the beer hall this year did not meet ex pectations and we feel this is primarily because there was no entertainment the main attraction at last years beer hall was not just the beer but also the live en tertainment the music at the hall last year featured some local talent such as singer- guitarist susan cogan and a host of really good musicians who mostly live in the area an afternoon of swilling beer in smokey dark latcham hall is not that appealing but with the addition of fine music a real party atmosphere prevailed the kinsmen should also seriously con sider relocating their dunk tank it was off in a corner of the park where there were no other activities to really draw a crowd we suggest the dunk tank be set up somewhere around latcham hall not far from the beer hall patrons and hamburger stand customers editors mail helpers thanked dear sir on behalf of the town i wish to thank all the ladies who assisted with the distribution of the carnations and who assisted cliff aiken at the strawberry festival held in honour of senior citizens week i would also like to thank robert lowe of beckers milk for donating the ice cream and the tribune for the press coverage furthermore the stouffville stompers and the towns lions club should be congratulated for their participation the library staff held a much appreciated open house in- cooperation- with- the silver- jubilee club parkview home and green gables also put forth a great effort to make the week a success for which we thank them yours truly gordon ratcliff mayor of whitchurchstouffville seniors program dear sir thank you very much for publishing the article about our new day guest program i would like however to correct the impression that the program is aimed only at lonely senior citizens our new program is open to all senior citizens over 65 years of age who are am bulatory and not requiring nursing care and who would enjoy an activities program an opportunity to socialize and a good noon meal yours sincerely helen baatz social services director 1 parkview home tat wheelerv9 mayor and councillors tempt fate on kinsmen dunk tank for canada day kersplash its canada day by john montgomery i dread admitting it but the cartoon directly above this space is oh the shame factually inaccurate the mayor gordon ratcliff did perch himself atop the dunk tank but he did not go down in spite of the best efforts of a con siderable number of the local electorate not to mention a few feeble efforts made by yours truly and surprisingly enough even by the mayors wife sadie his worship stayed high and dry purposely ill bet just to foul up our cartoon i really cant squawk too much though because i did have a good time terrorizing gordon earlier in the day i warned him that when i passed by the dunk tank that morning i hatispotteda ruthless band of killer cfnsmeit stealthily plopping big chunks of ice into the water barrel geez i told gord thatll be like slipping onto an iceberg then i really started twisting the knife by enthusiastically relating to gord how we had lined up a former hardball pitcher who could knock the spots off a ladybug at 30 paces gords eyelids squinched a little closer together as i airily informed him the tribune had budgeted 50 to drop him at six balls for a buck theres a lot of chances for a big splash i was lying of course but by the time i finished my fabrications gordon was shaking in his flashy white swimming trunks then again though it might have been from sup pressed mirth councillor eldred king whitchurch stouffvilles own master of malpropism also look up a position on the glory seat and finally after a long stint he was put down by way of a grudge match actually it would have been mighty suspicious if neither of our elected reps bit the dust so to speak and such an occurrencecould easily have led to charges that the politicians had paid off the kinsmen to rig a fallproof tank boy what an opportunity that would have been for some muckraking journalism why it positively makes my typing digits tingle thered have been big headlines in the papers then an inquiry would have convened theyd sit and i mean sit for six to eight months at a cost ranging between 200000 and 800000 hear opposing expert witnesses who with the same basic training and evidence would come up with totally opposing viewpoints depending on which side they were working for and in the end the decision would have come down that there is no evidence to prove anything not even the existence of god in uxbridge it was a differentstory en tirely with the uxbridge tank everybody went down the mayor took a dive and they even potted the editor of some obscure publication from up that way really im disappointed i didnt volunteer for the lank myself if id known stouffvilles tank was going to be one of the highest and dryest on record i would have gone up there without the slightest hesitation i mean fifteen minutes of trailing your toes in the water on a hot june afternoon is quite pleasant and with the added fillip of being able to yell sly taunts and blatant insults at the wouldbe marksmen who are knocking themselves out and dislocating their shoulders in a vain and expensive effort to see me plunge would make the experience delightful in the extreme id probably be a fair money maker anyway not as good as a local politician but there are a few people out there who have been stung from time to time b my acid wit or a reasonable facsimile thereof who have suffered the excruciating pain of having their sacrosanct words of wisdom ruthlessly edited or have been inflicted with the indignity of seeing their publication of their wedding announcement so lengthily delayed it appears in the paper concurrent with their first birth announcement who would joyously shell out their hard earned cash to drop me in a vat aslong is no real danger of gelling wel im just as good a sport as the next guy- actually dunking politicians on canada day could and should become a national tradition a summer rite like spraying dan delions in fact i would even go further and say the mandatory dunking of all politicians should be encoded in law and enforced rigorously every canada day all politicians from every level of government should have to act as dunk tank targets theyd probably make enough money we could drop the income tax fat chance window on wildlife- all about eggs by art briggsjude kids corner stuff and nonsense byannegret lamure editors note there are always some things that stick out in your mind more than others and a grade 6 class at a school that will not be named decided to write down the most exciting things that happened during the past school year here are some excerpts the names have been changed to protect the innocent and the guilty ill remember one day mr j came to school with a hole in his shoe pu in guidance we saw a nude film at the end boys were jumping up and down nude mr js fuzzy moustache went up every lime he breathed ill never forget the time when we were in the art room and john dick harry and i were throwing toothpicks down kerry and lyndas tops it was very funny when mr j came in his jukebox van doing 80 miles per hour at 907 am ill always remember all those people reading their stupid essays ill remember the buffet too because we had so much food and hardly anything was left and mr j kept getting soap ill remember mr k squeezing the sponge all over jacks head the time somebody got a sanitary napkin from the nursess room and we threw it at the boys and then we buried it in the snow and when the snow melted we found it again when someone stole mr js cigarettes and we smoked them 1 1 will always remember when gordon threw up and there waspink barf all over the music book in music tm always remember the day kirsten had six babies and kerry and peter got locked in the storage room the day mr j swatted larry with the ruler and mary whipped the bat by ac cident and squared doug and mr j played his guitar and tried to sing we were singing and looking at miss c and her eyeballs popped out of her head nearly ill always remember the great carrot war or ww3 at lunchtime there was a kid that laughed like a seal i will remember our short teacher when he took off his platform shoes and then his socks to play volleyball i will always remember ds nice ex cuses for not having her homework done when mr j told laura to put her gum on her nose and it didnt stick the time l and i put jeffs eraser down the toilet when l and j and i picked up johns desk and dumped it i remember the day anne could not get into her very tight shorts the year i went through a ton of pen cils all those winter days the bus didnt come when stephen improved his face with a pumpkin the day mr j and john were arguing and drawing pictures of each other i will remember the torture audrey went through coming to school with mr j i will not forget the thrills of putting our hands on our heads mr j thought there was some connection between our hands and our mouths i will not forget the day jim tried to commit suicide by swallowing ink when ted flushed himself down the toilet i could never forget the time the girls stole roys bumble bee inside his lunch box putting up with mr j combing his moustache all year when everyone gave mr j shaving cream because they thought he smelled wrong when i got the hiccups and couldnt slop when dave had a maxipad in his lunch but the thing i will remember the most will be the end although millions of eggs are devoured each morning at the breakfast tables of north america few people give any thought to the importance of this shelled embryo in the world around us eggs are that very important step in the reproduction of all bird life whether they be domestic fowl feeding mankind tick birds taking the parasites off african cattle or swallows helping to keep down the mosquito population all in all every single species of bird that swims walks or flies was once an egg of some description and the description and variation in the size and shape of eggs is a study in itself apart from the huge extinct elephant bird whose eggs weighed about 27 pounds the largest egg laid by a bird today is that of the ostrich which incidently tips the scales around three pounds at the opposite end of the pendulum is the tiny beanlike effort of the south american bee humingbird whose petite egg weighs in the neighbourhood of five thousandth of an ounce between these two extremes thare are eggs of all shapes and sizes incorporating a yast array of colour patterns ranging from pure white to solid black some like the beautiful eggs of the baltimore oriole now called simply nor thern oriole rival the imagination of the artists brush others such as those of the nighthawk blend so well with their pebbly surroundings they are almost impossible to see odd as it may seem not all birds that nest in cavities lay white eggs while the wood peckers kingfishers and three swallows do lay clutches of white eggs those of the bluebird af e blue and the eggs of the house wren are dull and heavily spotted it would seem an aid to a songbird flying from bright sunlight into a darkened hole to have the eggs white thus lessening the chance of stepping on them with the resultant breakage on the other hand open nesting species like warblers and song sparrows have speckled eggs are afforded some measure of camouflaged protection when left alone most groundnesting birds such as meadowlarks and gamebirds like pheasants and ducks have dull coloured eggs for the same reason pity the poor mourning dove whose flimsy seethrough platform can hardly be called a nest and clearly discloses the two white eggs when the parent birds are absent contrary to most thought all eggs are not the socalled uniform shape of the average domestic hens egg the kiwi of new zealand is a good example for its elongated shape allows the female to lay an egg of much larger proportions than would be expected from a bird this size the white pelican on the other hand although twice as big as the kiwi lays a conventional shaped egg about half the size of the new zealand bird sea birds that nest on narrow ledges often lay eggs that are sharply tapered at one end this feature causes the eggs to turn in tight circles if they are touched and often prevents them from rolling off the high cliffs into the sea owls eggs by the way are the closest to being perfectly round while those of the loon and some gamebirds are nearly oval in shape the incubation periods for this vast array of egg variations ranges from just under two weeks for small songbirds to over two and half months for large soaring albatrosses and while most birds use their body heat to incubate their eggs the mallee fowl of australia builds a vast mound of decaying vegetation to accomplish the same end this link with its prehistoric past gives us an in sight into the development of birds from reptiles for like the lowly turtle who never knows its own offspring the mallee fowl has no recognition of its selfsupporting chick tindern embersringbilled gulls were behaving much like huge swallows this past week as they swooped amongst the tree tops over the islands off pointe au baril their quest was the hordes of sandflies swarming up from the mostly stunted timber are those extra abundant maple keys trying to tell us theres a hard winter ahead at any rate theyll make good bird feed for next year just dry em and store them in metal containers to keep the mosquitos from breeding in your bird bath change the water every other day or so the birds will appreciate the fresh water also do yourself a favour and save wildlife some anxiety leave young squirrels rac coons rabbits etc in the woods where they belong 5