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p4 tribune january 5 1994 st stouffville comment looking good for 1994 a new year and new hope let us make 1994 better than 1993 working together we can overcome any chal lenge and there are many that are still facing us from last year that must be addressed looking at these challenges be they economic political religious or social from a fresh vantage point can often lead to solutions the year 1993 was not one that will long be remembered as particularly favorable still in the midst of a reces sion the outlook in the com munity was certainly not at its brightest but predictions are part of what make new hope spring forth in a new year and already the prognosticators are optimistic about 1994 lets do all we can to make their predictions come true disaster strikes despite best intentions xt ow was your holiday our christmas was mar vellous and despite doing all our shopping at the last minute there were few snags in our yuletide plans until after christmas that is we arrived back home on box ing day full of christmas cheer and egg nog we went out for a couple of hours and when we returned our holiday took a decided turn for the worse in her exuberance to be back on familiar ground the fabu lous mrs beasley took it upon herself to investigate the christ mas tree further she had already consumed about 50 worth of decorations from the lower branches before christmas but we had antici pated this so we didnt put any thing of any real sentimental value within her reach she also managed to get hold of a string of lights pull them off and chew the cord into a thou sand tiny fragments she did the same with our one and only extension cord to combat fur ther intrusions on our festive decor we surrounded the tree with our dining room chairs whenever we went out and this seemed to deter her curiosity we put those smelly green things that are supposed to keep dogs off shrubbery all over the tree as well as an insurance policy it was with great dismay to see our plans had failed for when we returned there was our tree minute with mair andrew m a ir leaning precariously against one of the chairs on the floor in lit tle tiny pieces lay our tree top santa claus he was our pride and joy complete with furlined velvet coat tiny handcarved toys in his sack and a plush white beard with a ceramic face we stood there mouths open as the nownotsofabulous mrs beasley lay among the ruins tapping her tail quietly on the rug around her lay bits of san tas beard his ceramic face now cleanly shaven lay in a corner surveying the scene of carnage his coat was stripped of his fur which now lay like little dead mice all over the carpet his sack was emptied of its contents and the tiny toy trains and dolls trucks and parcels looked like godzilla had come stomping through toyland with a sad heart i picked up santas remains and gave him a decent burial we propped up the tree again moved the chairs back and began to make provisions for a temporary tree top just then it became very cold in the house we had run out of furnace oil on the coldest day of the year in a mad scramble i rushed to make a fire while kim called the oilman in our haste to deal with a new crisis we forgot about the tree suddenly there was a tremen dous crash and the tree was on the floor not a single decoration remained on its branches we looked at each other we looked at the tree we looked at the decorations all over the floor we looked at the dog who was sitting forlornly in the corner despite my insistence every year that we not take the tree down until epiphany ours was the first one at curbside in 1993 stoufrville tribune publisher general manager editorinchief advertising director business manager operations manager patricia pappas andrew mair jo ann stevenson debra weller vivian oneil pamela nichols staff reporters tracy kibble julie caspersen roger belgrave photographers sjoerd witteveen steve somerville real estate ads joan marshman classified ads doreen deacon retail sales joan marshman doreen deacon distribution ariene maddock canadian publications mail sales product agreement 439010 pubhtiywtoytljrtrolxjmntjnaiwlhln9aixldlstrilxitlogt9hltgrd marknam ontario up 1m3 tat 2942200 tha stoutmse tribune published every wednesday at 6244 main st stovfmd is one of tha etetreiend priming publishing and distributing group of suburban new which includes auplckering him advertiser aurora bannar barria advanca brampton guardian burlington post colllngwood connection etomcoke guardian georgetown tndependenvacton free praia kingston this week undsay this was harkham e a sun mfctand express anion ca champion mttsrts naurs newmar era bannar korb york mirror northumbariand nam oakvdie beaver orlllla today oshewa- whltty this waak peterborough tma waak richmond huvthomwlwauohan liberal scarbor- ough mrror and imrafga tribune national sales representative metroiand corporals sates 4931300 6402100 6405477 fax it is hard to be a humbug 0 emember that as a teenager you are at the last stage in your life when you will be happy to hear that the phone is for you fran lebowitz i reflected on this sage observa tion when the phone rang one morning a couple of weeks ago hi mum its me pause clare i forbore to say that when a young female called and said hi mum the chances it could be anyone else were practically nil a sixth sense told me that my daughter who spent most of the inaptly named holiday season hanging out at other peoples houses was not calling just to say hi my uncanny parental instincts turned out to be depressingly acute were at the park she continued cheerfully weve been tobogganing and were soaked so we wondered if you could pick us upraijrtihg light flashed in my i kates corne addled brain notwithstanding the fact that it was still the season to be jolly my immediate reaction owed more to scrooge than santa the fact was i was working deep in the process of trying to drag from my brain a bunch of bon mots that would not cause my readers to nod off or seek refuge in bruces sports notes who exactly i inquired is us lets see said clare theres allie brent sherry jamie kristy laura ryan i think there are eight of us altogether i reminded her that i didnt have a school bus in the driveway just a battered 1986 tercel with a seating capaci ty of five including the driver thats ok she assured me you could pick up one lot drop us all off at our place and then go back for the rest well i said weakening danger ously i was in the middle of a rather important piece of death less prose due that very after noon clare was sympathetic but unmoved everyone elses mum she explained stoically was at work bowing to the inevitable i set off for the tark to be greeted by a group of damp and dishev elled kids before i could say bah humbug four of them were in the car laughing and talking and shiver ing and thanking me so sweetly for picking them up that i was forced to smile you cant even have a bad mood around here without someone ruining it i fevrstfi