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the tribune stouffville ont thursday january 22 195s 6 c v i roy shaver of finch ont past president of ontario plowmens association accompanied douglas s reid of brampton ont and algie wallace of xorth gower ont canadas champion plowmen on their trip to the british isles eire and france this is the first of a series of five weekly articles he has written as team manager about their experiences and impressions it hardly seems possible that this is 1953 and it is two months since the three of us took oft by air to start another canadian plowmens tour of the british isles and to compete against european plowmen by the time we returned we had pel ienced our first peasouper the worst fog in londons recent history visited canadian war graves in france seen some of the finest agricultural land in the world and rubbed shoulders with and spoken to representatives of almost every nationality you can think of however before i tell you more about the trip i had better tell you something about us and how we came to make the journey for the past seven years the grand prize of the ontario plow mens association annual inter national plowing match has been a gold medal and a trip to europe for the champion horse and trac tor plowmen with all expenses paid by imperial oil the prizes are ofrered for the winners of a special class known transatlantic class were 20vearod douglas s reid of brampton ont in the tractor class and 35y earold algie wal lace of north gower ont in the horse class algies win was a matter of great priot in eastern ontario he was the first plowman to bring a championship to the eastern counties in the 39year history of the opa each year it is the custom of the opa to select a team- manager to accompany the plow men in addition to acting as man ager he also is the groups otlicial chronicler and reporter i consid er it a great honor to have been chosen 1 am a director and past president of the opa and have been a lifelong dairy farmer at finch in ontarios stormont coun ty- you are probably wondering why we did not write while we were overseas there are two reasons it has been the practice in past years for the winning plowmen to make their overseas visit in jan uary and february in time to par ticipate in the northern ireland international match at belfast this time the opa directors de cided we should make our trip almost immediately after the international match and compete instead in the british national ploughing match at falkirk scot land during the match there was to be a trial of a set of rules that had been proposed for inter- as the esso national plowing competitions the opa was anxious for canadian the winners at last oetobefs plowmen to take part in this trial match held at caro near ottawa leaving at that time also allow ed me to sit in with j d thomas of toronto the opas special delegate at the nnation confer ence at stirling scotland which decided to hold the first world plowing match in canada this fall however the early november departure meant there was little time for preparation of many things among them arrangements with weekly editors for publica tion of our letters to you a quick poll taken among editors of our acquaintance showed they thought it would be better if we related our experience after our return for publication after the christ mas rush so for the next few weeks we will try to recall for you the things that impressed us most and some of the wonderful people we met during the trip 1 think i can say without hesi tation that the one thing that impressed us most and certainly the thing that will live in my memory for a long time was the amazing spirit of the people of england reading newspaper accounts and predictions of approaching national bankruptcy scarcity of food and high taxes we had expected to meet gloomy dis gruntled people though bomb damage still scars acres of london we saw onlyone new building the people we met never once mentioned the war the high taxes which are even now still paying for that war or the stringent rationing which is another hold over from those bleak years had we not known better we could have concluded there never had been a war or rationing it is easy to be generous when one has plenty but it is quite a different matter to be generous on the meagre rations which britons have put up with for the past 13 years i can remember sitting down to tea in the dining room of a quaint oakbeamed house 100 years old on the table were hot scones dripping with butter the butter represented some two weeks rations for our hosts but that was a subject that was never discussed dont misunderstand me it isnt a mood of resignation it is rather a spirit of theres no use ml p1sgah there was a bit of excitement in the community on saturday of last week when little irene cnam- bers was missing from her home the family hunted in the immed iate surroundings of the home and then called in the provincial police who found her about one- third of a mile from home in the bush of a neighboring ranch irene is five years old and was gone for about three hours she did not reaiize that she was lost and was quite warm and content ed mr and mrs william linton of thornhill visited with mr and mrs norman brown and family on sunday mrs margaret acey is again living in our community with her daughter mrs norman brown mr and mrs arthur clark and mrs hattie gamble of richmond hill were saturday visitors with the jack gamble family mr don sproxton was rushed to newmarket hospital on friday night of last week with a ruptured appendix and was immediately operated on latest- word is that he is a very sick young man and will be for awhile his friends all send the best of wishes for a speedy recovery the gormley branch of the womens institute will meet on wednesday evening january 2s in the school room of ss no 6 mrs e a smith convener of agriculture and canadian indus try is planning a very good pro gram for this meeting as it is hus bands night motto to provide two blades of grass where there was but one is both a profit and a pleasure hostesses are mrs george boynton and mrs kirstein all provide mrs duncan crawford of bald win is visiting with mr and mrs john ash and family for a couple of weeks ifstp fancy tomato juice 20 oz tins 2 for 23 aylmer choice cream style corn 20 oz tins 2 for 27 campbells tomato soup 10 oz tin 13 marvel pastry flour 24 lb bag 139 morning treat coffee freshly ground lb 93 budget tea 1 lb pkg christies soda biscuits 1 lb pkg 33 wilsons ginger ale 2 bottles 45 spy apples second grade 6 qt basket 49 lemons 300s 6 for 29 grapefruit 96s 4 for 25 oranges 252s doz 39 carload groceteria john mathkwsox prop stoupivi lilk on t 1hovk 280 whining about all this we went into it with our eyes open so well see it through when we remembered some of the complaining and grousing that goes on over here 1 think we all felt a little ashamed together with this wonderful spirit was an extreme politeness on the part of the english we met it through england after the raring tearing lets get there in a hurry rudeness that it seems to me is so general here it was as refreshing as a summer rain on the plattonn of londons st pancras station our tall white westernstyle hats decorated with a maple leaf revealed us as strangers within as many min utes six people approached us smilingly said hallo and asked if there was anything they jould do for us that sort of thing happened to us wherever we went another thing that made a strong impression was the breath taking beauty of the war graves i visited during a twoday trip we made to france the cemeteries and graveyards of our soldiers who fell in the two world wars would stand comparison with the finest parks in the world no mon ument could better show our grat itude than these acres of green grass beautiful flowers and simple white crosses that reveal the most loving and tender care 1 am afraid i have rambled a little in this first letter but in those that follow i will trace our path through the british isles and hope that you will get as much 1 enjoyment from the telling as we did from the doing clearance sale a quantity purchase allows us io pass this saving on o the customer quantity limited 5000 tradein allowance model 1031 price 24950 minimum trade 5000 sale price 19950 ftjodel 1011 price 22950 minimum trade 5000 sale price 17950 model 1051 price 29950 minimum trade 5000 sale price 21950 moffat 1034 i clearance sale to make room for spuing deliveries save from 15 to 35 on beautiful nylon blouses ladies skirts ladies cosy ski underwear ladies snujrgies and vests childrens blouses childrens skirls a few childrens better dresses styled by dorothy brown and joan doreen limited quantities in each group drop in and take advantage of these savings ps attention figure skaters we have very few skating skirts in ladies sizes only in stock reg 995 for 525 reg 695 for 425 the three sisters stouffville ontario a world champion looks bored homestead daisy lladcap is the world champion walking milk factory on jan 13 her 365day average milk produc tion stood at 45 quarts and in the year she produced almost her own weight in table butter 1500 pounds daisy appears suitably modest about it all or may be just bored as she views the nine fivequart pails shes expected to fill at her barn in carnation wash where her output was checked by the holsteinfriesian assoc iation of america sponsored by the ontario retail hardware association farrs radio electric stouffville ontario rvwyvvvvvwv ac aosemes visit toronto o canadian hardware and housewares show february 2 3 4 5 1953 see thousands of items designed to stir your imagination and rouse your interest in this the biggest showing of its kind youll find eyecatching new equipment for the home garden or workshop worksaving appliances and fascinating demonstrations free supervised parking special street car service transfer to exhibi tion cars at batbum open to the public february 2 3 4th only 6 ptn to 10 pm admhtho 50c automotive building canadian national exhibition grounds