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the tribune wednesday dec 31 1m editors mail please aid fire fund dear editor marie adams is a proud woman the last to request assistance this being the case someone must speak on her behalf ive taken it on myself to do just that marie lost her home her business and most if not all her belongings shes lucky to have escaped with her life as in past tragedies im sure the residents here will come to her aid just as she would be the first to assist others in similar circumstances as i understand it financial donations can be channelled through the stouffville ministerial association clothing size 1112 and shoes size 7 can be left at the home of jane click 206 manitoba street stouff ville sincerely shirley pearce main street west stouffville a brighter ivew year dear mr thomas every time i turn on the radio or television or pick up a newspaper i read of death and damage by fire mostly in toronto or areas even further removed from here when such a thing occurs right in town such as the blaze at marie adams home it makes me stop and think it could have been mine i hope everyone will think of maries loss in this light she could be me with our help the beginning of 1981 will be a whole lot brighter than the conclusion of 1980 shirley bradley albert street stouffville town extends helping hands to aid victims of fire tragedy wht wrtfmrn james thomas- editorinchief barrebeacock advertising manager established 1888 charles k nolan publisher editorial dept jim holt jim irving national advertising representative dan poyntz display advertising dept lou wldeman rod splcer classified advertisingcirculation joan marshman office manager doraan deacon business office eileen glover published every thursday at 54 main st stouffville ont tel 6402101 toronto phone 3611680 single copies 25 subscriptions 1200 per year in canada 3000 elsewhere member of canadian community newspapers association and ontario weekly newspapers association second class mall registration number 0896 the tribune is one of the inland publishing co limited group of suburban newspapers which in cludes the ajax whitby pickering news advertiser brampton guardian burlington post burlington weekend post etoblcoke gazette markham economist and sun newmarketaurora era oakvllle beaver oshawa this week mlsslssauga news oshawa thi weekend acton free press milton canadian champion and the georgetown independent 6402100 3611680 roaming around fm flying high with no flap by jim thomas editorials establish town fire fund marie adams operated the christian supply centre on main street in stouffville as might be expected from the name local ministers and church members were regular patrons however her store was looked on not as a business but rather as a service a service that will be missed in town apart even from this aspect of the tragedy mrs adams is herself a devout christian woman highly respected by all who know her it seems appropriate then that the stouffville ministerial association is the organization taking the lead in establishing the marie adams fire fund here par ticipating pastors should be commended we urge your support donations can be sent to the stouffville ministerial fire fund box 1031 stouffville mine was a merry christmas i hope yours was too yes i received everything i asked for i mean hinted for plus a few extras on the side a tube of brylcreem a jar of cashews two cartons of mints a blue shirt with matching tie a windshield ice scraper three ballpoint pens razor blades shaving cream the list goes on all practical things except for maybe the mints and the cashews that ill use every day while each is appreciated a simple card from daughter susan contains a message ill always treasure it reads for all you did to make every christmas past a special time a warm remembering time thanks dad and merry christmas with love bit difficult to place a price on something like that while giftgivings a common practice within most families the trends away from this in the majority of firms inland publishing included even interoffice ex changes are frowned upon mainly because no one knows what the other person wants this christmas however the bond was broken by the gals in the business end of our office i returned from a few days vacation to find a daintily wrapped parcel on my desk while it contained no instructions on when to open i decided to wait till dec 25 naturally the kids and my wife were as curious as i we all took to guessing most thought it to be a plastic cover to protect the car seat from coffee spills however jean being even more practical than that felt certain the carton contained copy paper a couple of typewriter ribbons carbons and things like that i said a shirt after all thats what most men get at christmas imagine my surprise when on christmas morning i dismantled the package and discovered inside a pair of fleecelined woollies longjohns if you like i held them aloft for all to see and everybody laughed embarrassed not in the least they were what i needed most the truth is id been wearing my summer briefs right into the winter and come last thursday when tem peratures dipped to 20 below i was cold i mean really cold following a trip downtown on foot my legs felt like a couple of barkless stumps regardless woollies are something id never buy not for myself with a warm house and a warm car who needs em ex cept maybe on rare occasions like thursday when frigid air from white horse inundated stouffville ill shiver through it r said to myself even if it kills me anyway the gals at the office have saved me from a fate worse than death im wearing them now and theyre warm as toast but how did they know thats the question jean keeps asking she knows we have a communal bathtub on the second floor but no one uses it at least ive never caught anyone in it we also have segregated washrooms so how did they know the only clue i can think of is the fact that when i work late on sunday nights i in variably switch the thermostat up to eighty when the girls arrive monday mornings they find the place uncomfortably hot to warm me up and cool them down they pooled their resources and bought me a pair of woollies as much as i appreciate their generosity their purchase presents one problem it has no flap in the back thats as true as im sittin here no flap at all it seems like the manufacturer has switched to the other extreme from the doubleseated buttonup type to a single- seater completely enclosed thats progress for you high on style but low on convenience hopedfor growth in 1981 its that time again to look ahead and assess the prospects for 1981 for individuals for business and for our municipality as a whole we have just come through a fired- up municipal election on this very issue the results were gratifying in that they showed a large percentage of residents in our town were keen to see more growth and more vitality in the municipality during and since the election we have had moves and promises of improvement it appears that an industrial committee may be in the works a positive step towards at tracting more plants to town an industrial park is on the drawing board and the long- awaited dulverton residential development may at long last get off the ground the latter will provide the muchneeded eastwest through street a second crossing to our railway bottleneck and an easing of down town traffic hundreds look forward to some or all of these things coming to pass many have ex pressed the opinion that the town had reached a crossroads either to pull up its development bootstraps or find itself bypassed in favor of neighboring towns which can offer citizens a much more uptodate life style like many others we who have spent almost a lifetime here are proud of our town we have watched with satisfaction as it has grown over the years we want to see this growth and prosperity continue and look towards the new year with great an ticipation window on wildlife- wolf howls still create fear empty seats are showing excuse me mr ballard but your seats are showing whether on purpose or by accident tv cameras panning the office accommodation at maple leaf gardens keep focussing more and more on sections of emptiness within the building on dec 23 against hartford whalers and again saturday against the boston bruins the already vacant areas of golds reds and greens became more depopulated as the game continued on by the agonizing end of each it appeared more fans had left than remained while the majority of seats are reserved well in advance of the hockey season the no- shows tell a tale of disenchantment by many wouldbe spectators towards this toronto team and no wonder its horrible hockey if the games arent worth seeing from the seats and they arent it stands to reason that hundreds are also tuning them out at home this also can hurt the advertiser as well as the owner unless this conglomeration of disorganized and overpriced talent pulls up its collective socks soon prcfessional hockey here will go the way of lacrosse as a top sport attraction that night in late november was unusually quiet even the great horned owl on the nearby ridge was silent the stars sparkled on the fresh snow the crescent moon hung suspended like a silver dish in the distant sky we stoked the fire with a couple of solid oak logs and turned in for the night sleep comes easy in such surroundings so that very shortly even the crackling of the wood in the stove fell on deaf ears then they came out of the pine woods like a bunch of banshees breaking the silence and the solitude with sounds so loud they resembled those of a passing ambulance as we jumped up to see what was happening their initial shrieks broke into prolonged howls interspersed with short yips when youre travelling through remote northern areas and you hear wolves howl its often from some distance hilltop there they call to one another sometimes even co warn the others of your intrusion into their wilderness domain but here we were in our farmhouse 10 miles south of no 7 highway about 55 miles north of kingston and a pack of wolves were cavorting about not far from our door step in fact they sounded so close at one point i thought they were actually run ning right up the drive as we listened almost breathlessly to their unnerving renditions my mind flashed back to the original settlers who dwelt in these premises a century ago little wonder these isolated folk formed lasting impressions of wolves that over the years grew more frightening as the tales were retold suddenly as if on a given signal the howling stopped all was peaceful and quiet once more i strained at the window peering out into the whiteshaded landscape but could see nothing a shiver went up my spine i lifted the stove lid to add another woodchunk to the dwin dling heat source but found to my surprise the fire was still burning strong and bright the room in reality was not cold at all editors mail fine play dear jim im pleased your paper continues to acknowledge the hockey accomplishments of stouffvilles keith acton for me keiths fine play with the canadians is the most exciting thing to happen here in years although toronto could use a player of his talents it would appear hes now a permanent fixture in montreal we all wish him well sincerely greg fields rr i stouffville by art briggsjude sometime just before dawn they came again but on this occasion they were further away on the far side of the valley after breakfast we went out and found five separate tracks less than 150 yards from the house in the snowcovered dunes and hummocks of an old gravel pit here they had gathered probably a family group to exercise their voices or to give the youngsters some sort of training for at one place the signs showed where a wolf had found a piece of old deer skin under the snow and had carried it along for some distance but really you dont have to go north or even east to the kingston area to hear and see wolves in fact three weeks ago the car in front of us struck and killed a wolf just outside of the hamlet of goodwood and farmers and hunters often chase wolves across their properties in the lake scugog and uxbridge areas even closer to home our neighbor in gormley paused in his spring plowing to watch a wolf jump out of the hedge row and carry off a struggling groundhog and while these brush wolves or coyotes are smaller than the timber variety of the north their cross breeding with domestic dogs sometimes yields a predator that weighs well over 50 pounds thats a heck of a lot of howl in any mans language especially if you multiply it by five and move it up just the other side of your front gate