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page 2 the tribune thursday fcoruary 21 1972 lft rtfiune james thomas and editor established 18s8 charles h nolan publisher associate publisher robert mccalsland advertising manager published every thursday by inland publishing co limited at 5i main st stauffviile ont tel- 6302101 single copies 15c subscriptions s600 per year in canada s1000 elsewhere membsr of audit bureau of circulation canadian weekly newspapers association and ontario weekly newspapers association second class mail registration number 0896 l mzditawial youth program is suspect on feb 14 when m p john roberts yorksimcoe visited stouffville he found an audience prepared with questions and anxious for answers the majority he fielded well one question however concerning the governmentsponsored opportunities for youth program has not been answered at least not well enough and the seminar sponsored by m p norm cafik ontario at uxbridge saturday only confirmed our suspicions that in theory the idea is great but in practice its a fiasco while it may be unfair to condemn all projects on the basis of what we saw and heard saturday we would conclude that to be even insignificantly successful its organizers with the exception of the dept of national defence would have to be better informed and more responsible than was apparent at this particular conference gumchewing tony defranco an official of the state secretarys depart ment was an insult to the people who took of their time to attend rather than merely arriving late it would have been better for his audience and less of an embarrassment for mr cafik if he had not arrived at all the federal government has authorized the spending of millions of dollars your dollars and mine in pushing this program the magnitude of the project is im mense but to realize benefits to warrant such expense very capable administrators are required administrators that will be selective at the start and decisive at the end anything less is a waste of their time and our money last year when the opportunities for youth program was originated several candidates for approved handouts were suspect in the minds of many at uxbridge saturday those suspicions are now confirmed we say scrap the project entirely and put the funds to a more practical use snowmobile earns its stripes every community has its snowmobile enthusiasts including whitchurch- stouffville every community whitchurch- stouffville included has its snowmobile critics we cannot be counted among either class we accept them for what theyre worth and their worth both drivers and machines was prominently revealed last weekend in anarea other than sport and recreation the big blow that inundated this district made their use essential dozens of motorists were assisted from stranded cars by these good samaritan snow vehicle operators many of whom made it a point to check locations where traffic might be heaviest by noon sunday as clearing operations continued many folks arrived back in stouffville some relating ex periences theyll never forget the majority for one reason or another had nothing but praise for the sometimes pesky snowmobile it would seem that regardless of complaints and criticisms some legitimate and some not there comes a time when credit must be given where credit is deserved so from us to you its a tip of the helmet for a job well done elitor mail dear mr thomas i am writing in response to a letter in the tribune feb 10 from a satisfied resident who expressed the view that the vla subdivision at ballantrae had already proved itself i would certainly agree with the writer on some points the homes are attractive and an asset to the area and those residents who i have met are fine people whose presence will benefit the com munity however there are some aspects which i feel should be considered before more building is approved the present public school at ballantrae is very overcrowded it is now accommodating twice the number of children for which it was in tended plans have been approved for an addition but building has not yet com menced and it will be some time before this addition becomes a reality i believe it would be most unwise to authorize further development before this school is enlarged if large developments are permitted the school might be over crowded even after it is enlarged another problem is servicing the land the water and sewers which city people take for granted the houses in the present subdivision have wells all these wells take their water from the same underground water system if a great many wells are taking water from the same system the water level will become lowered and residents will find their wells running dry there is a limit to how many houses can be served by wells when a community grows past the hamlet stage it becomes necessary to install a town water system and this is costly this would not only affect subdivision dwellers but older residents and farmers might also find their wells running dry and would suffer the expense of digging deeper wells or paying for connection to a town system similarly with septic tanks what density of oooulation can the area take before a sewage system would be required i would be interested to know if the town or the developers have had any studies done with regard to the water resources in this area and the number of septic systems that can be absorbed i would suggest that satisfied resident wait and see how his well holds out through one dry summer before coming to any conclusions i think the towns policy with regard to further development is a wise one further development can always be approved at a later date rural resident dear sir well as usual it has happened again this winter ontario county road no 23 whitby- pickering townline is maintained by pickering twp equipment during a period of six days here is their record of performance feb 4 road plowed twice feb 5 road plowed at noon 3 or 4 cars got through then road blocked again plowed about 6 pm by request on account of sickness one lane feb 6 road sanded still one lane feb 7 nothing still one lane feb 8 nothing still one lane feb 9 plowed out there must be at least two school buses a day on this road why the county of ontario permits this kind of maintenance i cannot un derstand in the nearly 50 years that i can recall the situation has been no better perhaps the municipality could learn a little from the town of whitby since this is now a county road why cannot it be maintained like all other roads under county jurisdiction w appleby r r 1 ashburn buy vay at 24 sj5ex vriie mr sugar and spice the way it was for billy the kid by bill smiley in a nostalgic mood today ive been thinking that with the onslaught of the speed age many of our fine old canadian traditions have fallen by the wayside died on the vine or simply lain down and curled up their toes one of the first to go of course was the blacksmith it hurts me to face the truth that most people today under thirty have never known the sensory joys of a blacksmiths shop at this time of year small boys used to squeeze through the ramshackle door and edge as close as they could to the fire freezing their bums and roasting their cheeks there was a fine acrid stench of horse manure and scorched hooves there was the leaping flame as the bellows blew there was the ringing clang as the smith beat out the whitehot metal between hammer and anvil and the satisfying hiss when the hot metal was plunged into the cold water at a certain age most male kids would have settled happily for the life of a blacksmith a free soul who spent his days doing the most fascinating work in the world the decline of the smithy of course was brought about by the gradual phasing out of another tradition the horsedrawn vehicle i wonder how many kids of this generation have ever spent a winter saturday catching bobs this was our term for jumping on the backs of far mers sleighs all day long the farmers came and went to and from town and all day long we hopped on behind a load of grain left that for a load of supplies going the other way picked up a sleigh piled with logs for the return trip and shivered with delighted fear as the farmers shouted at us and even sometimes flourished their whips in our direction as we grew a little older about 12 we graduated to catching on the wing a cutter this was more daring and more dangerous because they could really fly the runner was much smaller and the farmer could turn around and belt you one on the ear most of them of course were pretty decent i know now that they were more worried about us getting hurt in a fall than they were about the extra weight their horses had to pull then there were the butchers cutters these consisted of a sort of box with runners beneath and a step at the back for the driver to stand on the horses were not plugs but real roadrunners that went like a bat out of hell they were every bit as exciting as a roman chariot and the drivers were the envy of every boy in fur caps reins in one hand whip in the other as they tore through the town like furies and i wonder how many boys have played hockey all day on a frozen river when a hard shot the goalie missed might slide for a quarter of a mile we never had to worry about icetime or changing lines we could play until we were pooped then sit by the bonfire until rested and have another go and there were always twenty or thirty playing at once so everybody got a whack at the puck some great stickhandlers came out of that era think of the depths to which we have sunk the smithy with its light and shadows its reds and blacks its earthy smells its sense of life has been replaced by the garage a sterile thing with its cement floor its reek of gas and oil and its unspoken assurance that this-is- gonnacostyouplentybuddy the cutter swift and light as a bird no longer skims the snow it has been replaced by a stinking snarling skidding beast that only modern man could abide the snowmobile no more meatcutters careening around the corners on one runner delivering in any weather now we plod like zombies through the supermarket to moronic pipedin music and pick up the odourless antiseptic cellophaned packages the great gods dominion loblaw or safeway have assigned to us and carry them humbly to our cars three blocks away our kids have to get up at five am to play hockey and if theyre not real killers get about four minutes ice- time ah those were the days and i havent even begun on the most vital of all winter equipment the puck consisting of a frozen horsebun no 47 the great white way underneath all this snow is hwy 17 east of lincolnville as it appeared at i pm sunday in the immediate foreground is a volkswagen all but buried by huge drifts a frontend loader rear broke a path through after many hours of work jas thomas ftukmin big brother by jim thomas this is brotherhood week from feb 19 through 26 were asked to put aside all our little prejudices our animosities our bias and think of everyone as a brother or a sister if you like regardless of race religion color or creed to me its the most important period in the entire year so important in fact that it seems slightly ludicrous to establish one week a mere seven days to ac complish so vast a feat why not 52 weeks 365 days as you may have concluded by now protogetherness has become a mania with me ive expounded on the theory many times including several occasions in this column so it was sunday when my pastor called to tell me he was snowbound and requested i take the morning service i wasted no time in accepting the challenge for the theme was obvious brotherhood t well if there was ever an occasion to demonstrate it sunday was the day for as you may remember how could anyone forget the area was inundated by the worst storm of the winter the signs of brotherhood were everywhere and folks caught up in the fury of the blow were appreciative to the point of tears for the cooperation shown in their time of extreme need i talked to dozens of them and in every case the story was the same like the snowmobile chap who gave his name only as at rescuing a mother father and three children from a marooned auto on the bloomington road east of hwy 48 and a similar story from ringwood another snowmobile operator picking up an elderly motorist who had started out to walk the man was exhausted from the ordeal and near the point of collapse east of lincolnville a farm family opened up their home to a couple after their volkswagen became lost in an j eight foot drift west of ballantrae a j york regional police constable went out of hisway to pick up a stranded girl and j take her to division quarters atj newmarket vern and audrey da vies always willing to lend a helping hand to anyone in need turned their dance pavilion at cedar beach into an overnight hostel these are only a few of the stories there are hundreds more but what big brother did you do you j ask not very much compared to some im afraid but at least i tried it was about 2 pm i was quietly j brooding over my second cup of coffee at j bings suddenly without provocation on my j part a willowy blonde moved up to the counter and sat down only two stools away stormstayed i asked observing two suitcases with identification tags attached sure am she replied wearily ive come more than 1300 miles by bus no sleep in forty hours and now just seven miles from home im stranded funny isnt it how some days a i fellow even an innocent newspaper editor would be inviting a poke in the nose talking to a girl stranger so per sonally but not on stormy days at least not on stormy days in stouffville i enquired further i learned her name to be mary anne mary anne williamson her parents mr and mrs john williamson reside at rri goodwood originally mary anne had hoped to catch a plane out of winnipeg on friday but due to the threatened air technicians j strike no immediate flight was scheduled rather than wait she took a j bus to toronto and then to stouffville arriving in town about 1230 pm however at the corner of north street and hwy 47 the route ended solid drifts blocking both lanes with no chance of getting through to goodwood for several hours and anxious to prove that i practice what i preach i invited mary anne to spend the remainder of the afternoon at the office and then join our family for supper the kids they thought it was great my wife one hundred percent ap proval on one condition that my mania is restricted to brotherhood and nothing more whens mothers day