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unday.August 21, 2014: a 1 I! i 2013 1 ((NA 9 sun }Rmuom I \ , ; l i, i . Allsubmlssionsmustbe lessdnn400wocdsnnd Indudendayflmc 1 number. name-mindde Dmncron Cmm Salmons Katherine Pbrrhemn Mammal «macaw mummmm< mamade Duncmn. Baum “Mttpwmq York Rayon Media Groupoommunity hummus Robert Lazurko AND Gunman Gard Paolua‘i Iim Mason jmnsonhwmg mm LETTERS POLICY Daphne Lawn? Damon. Dm-IuIU'nON Tanya Whom yvcustomcrscmce. Anne Besuu‘ck F0: on you! 60mm maniacs. phase Debm Weller DIM;ch from. and I answémd. ’C‘anicatâ€" to the editor. The rural Whitchurch- Stouffville resident is also a passionate member of this newspaper's Community Links Panel. But by night. he has a mis- tress. an old flame he liaises with at a York Region eatery. He gets dressed up for her. Amenta. 69. has been play- ing the accordion at Frankie Tomatto's, a popular all-you- can-eat ltalian spot in south Markham. for three years. Spouse Kathy suggested he return to his neglected musical roots and pick up the instru- ment again. His wife fully éndorses this behaviour. It gets him out of the house. He’s loving it. donning tra- ditional garb for his restaurant role as “Sal Gondola” and even playing weddings and other special affairs on the side. Amenta invested in a new digital instrument. complete with synthesiser. He calls up music to more than 700 songs on his smartphone. which he mounts to the accordion. me That‘s Amore and Vol- axe. to Leonard Cohen's Halle- lujah and the theme from The Godfather. He’s into it. Them might not be gondo- lier groupies. yet. But the tips. sing-alongs and appreciative smiles are abundant. Amenta was flattered when a regular asked if he'd play a particular Sunday. It was her dad‘s 85th birthday and pops is big on the accordian. Amenta played. The birth- day boy. Franco Carrubba. loved it. The candles were all blown out. End of story? Wrong. You take it from hem. Sal: "The second time I went to the family's table. Rance asked me what part of Italy I was COLUMN Birthday serenade keys reunion of half-century y day. Sal Amenta is a retired teacher. community living advocate and serial writer of solid letters tim' Bagm” in the province of Stracusa. He was delighted to hear it. and told me he came from a nearby town, Pachino (Sicily). 'Well.'Isaid. 'My dad had many friends from that town and I knew many of them. too. In fact.’ I added. 'when I was a teenager I played for a band- leaderfi'om that town.’ Ver excited to hear this, fiance asked me for his name. and I promptly replied. ‘Sam Fronteflleafing this. he jumped from his seat to say. ‘Sam Fron- u»? I played in his band. too. What's your name?’ It was at that very moment that it dawned on us who we were. despite the ravages of time. It didn't take as long to figun’ out that we hadn’t seen each other for over 50 years since our group disbanded beforv 1964!" Photos were taken and exchanged. Amema sent a clas- sic black-and-white of the boys in the band. Amenta and Cam:- ba side by side. to the Carmbas. who live in Markham not far. coincidentally. from Amema's old address. (See page 4.) There is no storybook plan to get the band back togeth- er or release a CD of material recorded in ‘64. But it is still magical the way two old bandmates reunited after 50 years. IimMmisednorolmeSuanune. Whiranka By cflance. By conversing. With Iim Mason OffTheTop LETTER OF THE WEEK RcCanadau.S.mthelpingendwnfliain Middbmmmdnadimrbycdfiwm Aug“ Don't ignore rest of world and pick on Israel from this writer where he expressed similar ' tionaboutomerwoddissues wouldbe.formmple.thekillingsof nlolednnlsonnpeoplemswiaduringthe pastmmeyeamommfimmionldfledimhe CongofmmlSSBtoZOOfl. lam responding to the letter published WalsmeHanddmtmeyonlysaymey amilrgemgrtarguedbymckets). First. them are many factual 'maomracim mdlelenerindudingmcfactmemareno lsmelisenlememsinfiam andthatlsmeldou; notoccupyGanlsmelwimdrewma"landfor peace” deal.butinsteadgot mcketsimetum. Butcfmomimpoflanoaismatwhflel havebeenreadingknersinyourpaperbr manytmls. pedmpslmissedalltheletters from 'writerwheleheemressedsimilar And when he refers to an occupation. where is his letter about the illegal occupation of Tibet by China? I guess I missed that. too He notes in his letter that there may be those "chomping at the bit" to brand him “anti this or that". Well the word is anti-Sem~ ite. which fits someone who chooses to be obsessed with supposed Israeli atrocities â€" from a country smaller than El Salvador that is threatened with annihilation by dozens of countriesâ€"butignoresalltheotherevilinthe Beware rude, dishonest garage sale shoppers If you have a garage sale. beware that you may experience some rude and pushy customers Stop texting while driving and watch for school children Well. after this past winter I'm sure every- one was hoping for a long hot summer. but old_mother__r_\atpm fopleq us all again. Even still. the school bus routes have been handed out. dry runs are happening right now and that can only mean one thing - school will start back up Sept 2. Once again. I am reminding all of our driven out theme to watch for and be awan: of the kids and buses at the pickup and dmpoff locations Please remember that drivers and cyclists must stop for a school And with that the rbadé will be filled again with bright yellow buses and smiling stuéents' and some not so smiley. l have lived in York Region for 20 years and Punusmm Ian Proudfoot GENERAL MANAGER Iohn Willem: ERIC SOLOMON MARKHAM l have had many garage sales over the years and manage them with no problems on my own. ikhas been a great place to raise a family. Afewweeksamldecidedtohavea garage sale. Behaviours that l experienced include short-changing me knowingly and leaving with the item or paying for one item then adding a few more items and pushing to pay the same amount. However. the last two sales have lefi me qugstioning 59mg people's integn'ty. Last year. I had h fuimed oil‘pai'nting st0~ Ien fiom my sale. This yea} I had so many incidents of rude- ness and dishonesty. l have decided to never haveagaragesaleasain- I don‘t mind if people are fair and polite about baxgaining. that used to be the fun pan. but to be pushy and insistent is just plain rude and inconsiderate. l price my items ridiculously low. from 25 cents to $5 for new items. so they are already more than fait prices The most ubsetting incident concemed a young woman who asked me the price of a leather Roots bag. I told her $5 and when I turned for a sec 0nd to help someone else. I saw her out of the comer of my eye leaving quickly to her car and driving off. I looked atmmd and confirmed that she drove off with the purse without pay~ ing for it. if you am a garage sale shopper. pleaso be respectful so everyone can have an enjoy- ableAday finding or selling measures. If you are the garage gale host. you may want to have another person with you to help. i do want to say thank you to those ‘at my sale who were gracious. with some sharing interesting stories. As a local school bus drive}: most of themdlightrunnerslseeon mymuteam either on the phone or texting. so let’s all try and make a concerted efiort to avoid these bad habits bus when its red warning lights are acti- vated gnd the stop arm is out. Failure to do 50 could result in a hefty fine or worse. a student being hit. I’m pretty sum nong: of _us wants that to happen. Also. please watch out for our numerous crossing guards and stop for them as they help our kids get across local streets and Have a safe school year. everyone and let's hope the polar vortex forgets when: Stouffville is this winter. SUWW-Tribune 6290Main5t. WflMLM 167 DAVE BROOKS SH)UFFVILLE B. TAN RICHMOND HI! I