The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

end of an era brothers love minding their bees wax kate gilderdale correspondent after five generations of pro ducing and selling honey the byer family is selling its land mark operation north of major mackenzie drive on hwy 48 and taking a welldeserved retirement while he admits to some reser vations about leaving im look ing forward to a change after 50 years in business admits erie byer the family first came to southern ontario from penn sylvania he says around 1807 were not sure but we think they brought some bees with them which werent native to this country his greatgreat grandfather john byer settled across the highway from the present pro perty and kept bees for pleasure thats how it started explains erie he was probably selling some of the honey he would have been producing too much for his rush hour pholomikehagarty these canada geese seem to be the only creatures taking advantage of culture and recreation in downtown lemonville the skyscrapers are conebearing and the traffic is quiet its just the type of urban centre for the feathered friends own use john byers son peter eries great grandfather kept his bees in coldwater ont just south of georgian bay he farmed here for a bit but he didnt like it he was a woodsman that was the love of his life i can still remember going up to coldwater myself as a kid it was eries grandfather jl byer who moved into the honey- producing business full time he was strictly in that business and nothing else says erie adding that his father ed win worked at it all of his life starting at 16 jl byer offered edwin the option of staying on at high school or moving north of kingston to look after bees he looked after the bees for a while until he was about 18 and then he moved them back by train to coldwater the year my dad was married my grand father brought the bees to bin- brook south of hamilton erie says he moved there with his family when he was a baby then they sold to someone after a couple of years and the family moved back here edwins two brothers walter and lloyd were also involved in the family business today lloyd and erie are still produc ing honey together the building they work in has been here as long as i can remember muses erie it was moved back for the highway its at least 70 years old he started working there when he was in his 20s i just took over as dad and walter passed on its just lloyd and me looking after it now while they have less than 400 col onies of bees at one time we had over 1200 production varies from year to year depending on the weather and other things honey sales have dropped in recent years he says the farmers have gone were getting more urban people in were just too close to the city now he notes at one time recalls erie peo ple used to buy a whole years supply at once now most of them buy a jar at a time or go to the store and pick up a jar while theyre there with himself and lloyd both well past retirement age the decision to sell wasnt difficult were so busy were tied up all the time its hard when theres just two of us to do all the work he says erie estimates theyll be stay ing in business for another year or so he has five sons of his own none of whom wanted to go into the business hes never tried to persuade them to continue the family tradition they can make their living other ways more easily he points out there havent been any major changes in production methods states erie weve had some im provements but were not mechanized very much were not big enough to consider put ting in some of the expensive new equipment they do have a machine which removes the wax seal on both sides of the honeycomb and extracts the honey we used to do it by hand and it was quite a job he recalls hell miss the business in some ways he admits but is looking forward to having some time to himself in the meantime he and lloyd will continue to sell their honey opening for business as usual on fridays and saturdays ironically this years honey has been the best theyve produc ed in years erie observes fortunately theres still time to sample some before erie and lloyd byer say goodbye to their old home and the familiar honey building as a historic family tradition comes to a close lucky draw winners take home lots of loot a number of stouffville and area residents were the lucky winners recently of several prizes offered at the annual st marks fall fair held sept 23 in stouffville alice bragagnolo of rich mond hill was the grand prize winner of a color television a handmade quilt went to robin ardila of unionville while elaine kalmach of stouffville pedalled off on a 12speed bicycle in other prize events pauline green of stouffville picked up a black forest cake from the bake table while stouffvilles heather lyon won the chocolate spider cake and michelle martins of stouffville has the opportunity to eat her way through a seven- pound hershey bar her name was drawn for the sweet treat a number of fun events and sights were offered at the an nual fair which attracted many local residents support for stroke victims whitchurchstouffville stroke patients now have a place to go for support the speech and stroke centre yorkdurham branch a com munity program for stroke sur vivors with communication disorders began meeting tues day oct 3 at parkview village 70 9th line s in stouffville meetings are held from 920 to 1145 am new members or volunteers can call 6406284 or 8527702 for information mob mentality rules at baggage claim as regular readers of this col umn will know ive spent much of my spare time this year hang ing out at pearson international either waiting for arrivals or tak ing off for foreign parts myself last tuesday i was there again meeting my husbands flight from across the pond as i fought to maintain my vantage point at the well fingerprinted glass partition which separated us from them i found myself observing rituals of crowd behavior which however pointless are deeply ingrained in most human beings on arrival at the baggage area people rushed to stake out a place with a grandstand view of the carousel which was not only in nocent of luggage but totally immobile by the time it got moving the crowd was jostling for position elbowing each other aside in order to enjoy watching three kates corner kate gilderdale solitary pieces of baggage em bark on a fourth trip round in splended isolation suddenly someone was galvanized into frenzied action at the sight of his suitcase wedged on top of a host of others just out of his reach scrambling over those who werent about to give an inch of their territory to an interloper he managed to gain a precarious purchase on the bag this manoeuvre caused a land slide of luggage causing one to burst open flinging socks underwear and souvenirs in all directions over at the hatch where an underabundance of trolleys were being delivered at regular inter vals mob rule reigned supreme little old ladies and children were almost trampled underfoot every time a fresh supply arriv ed successful trolleycatchers emerged flushed with exertion clinging grimly to their hardwon prize ive found from experience that the fight to be first actually begins when the plane has just landed and is taxiing towards the airport inside the seat belt signs are on and cabin staff are vainly issu ing instructions to their charges to sit down and keep their belts fastened the majority of passengers however are on their feet opening luggage hat ches and dragging out flight bags cameras and dutyfree items the staff begins to get a little testy finally resorting to the kind of tone adopted by grade school teachers when addressing the class hellraiser they dontt actually say we wont let you off if you dont behave but thats the general drift the last time i flew in they announced with barely suppress ed glee that there would be an im migration inspection so youll all have to sit down because the inspectors wont come until you do finally the doors opened by this time the vast majority of passengers were wedged like sar dines in the aisles ignoring the obvious fact that even if they got to the dreaded red line at passport control before everyone else theyd still have to wait for their baggage as the new crowd rushed to their coveted ringside spot at the luggage carousel those who had been reunited with their baggage were roaring towards the customs hall brandishing their trolleys menacingly in an efort to get through first outside the scene resembled the finishing line at an olympic event as excited relatives and friends greeted the returning heros if nerves of steel and a desire to win are attributes valued by businesses today maybe they should consider staking out the luggage area at pearson interna tional when theyre looking for raw new talent-