p4 the tribune wednesday january 10 1990 mmmm let public decide on shopping local retail stores have set the pace for 1990 and indeed for the whole decade which we have now entered stores opened on sunday in de fiance of the retail and holiday business act there is pressure from retail business to either firm up the law or better yet throw it out there is pressure from churches to preserve sunday as a day for family by keeping stores closed but why should the govern ment keep stores closed just so families have time together should not each individual family decide when to put aside time for togetherness would we be so accepting if government decided to shut down fast food outlets because the deepfried wellsalted fare serv ed in such establishments is bad for health in this age people work in a variety of occupations many of which require that they work on sundays for many families saturday or a weeknight is the time set aside for shared pursuits the regional government should distribute a referendum to residents and let us decide to shop or not to shop take time for kids while theyre interested i hope were going to come up with some unexpected ways of entertaining the under15s in the 90s because video games vcrs and all that other sophisticated gadgetry just isnt enough to get parents off the hook any more this was brought home to me with some force when during a visit from three friends and their assorted offspring one eight- yearold child wandered discon solately into the kitchen and ut tered the words every parent dreads im bored theres nothing to do what about playing a video game i asked im fed up with them imp -j- j kates corner kate gilderdale how about watching one of the movies phate movies wailed the lit tle darling i always have to watch movies and its so boring this child like so many of his generation has a tv in his bedroom which is hooked up to his personal game system he also has constant access to a vcr and an enviable library of movies stouf f ville ux bridge tribune publisher editorinchief editor director of advertising retail advertising mgr administration mgr din of promotionsdistribution patricia pappas don bernard stephen houston debra weller susan berry chris bertram jennifer hutt published every wednesday by metroland printing publishing and distributing at 9 heritage rd markham ontario l3p 1m3 tel 2942200 second class registration number 1247 the stoufmeuxbridge tnbune published every wednesday at 54 main st w stouffvie is one of the metroland printing pubfehing and districting group of suburban newspapers which includes the acton free press ajaxpickering news advertiser aurora banner brampton guardian burlington post etobicoke advertiserguardian georgetown independent miton champion mississauga news newmarket era oakvffle beaver oshawawhitby this week richmond hillthornhaivaughan liberal scarborough mirror markham economist sun topic newsmagazine wjowdale mirror metroland prri- ting publishing and distributing is a drvision of harlequin enterprises ltd national sales representative metroland corporate sales 4931300 6402100 6492292 in the family basement alas as with every other new toy the novelty eventually wears off a fact that parents who are still marvelling that they can have a movie theatre in their own living room find it hard to grasp to children this miracle is a fact of life something thats been there as long as they can remember and movies and video games are no substitute for human and i dare say parental interaction my son is an avid video game enthusiast but he needs other outlets for his energies apart from physical activities one of our childrens favorite pastimes is playing board games and card games with us at the end of the day id be the first to admit that im not always filled with enthusiasm when having just sat down with an engrossing book im nudged out of my comfortable chair with a demand for a game of scrabble particularly as my son is starting to win more and more often because we cant have meals together as often as wed like this isnt just a time for games it also provides an excellent oppor tunity for family discussions not to mention an object lesson in how to lose gracefully something which can be hard for children to accept although i get irritated when my children sulk i was probably one of the worst losers of all time in my youth so i must admit they come by their unsporting attitude honestly when we do go to the movie store we try to select something we can all watch together without cringing last week we rented dr zhivago which was a great nostalgia trip for us as adults and an enthralling film for the children it was also unique in recent movie experience in the entire three hours and 20 minutes not one expletive was uttered its incredible how fast kids move from snap to trivial pur suit and from familycentred ac tivities to their own lives losing at scrabble is a small price to pay for being together while they still prefer our company to that of the allpervasive video screen great success for 89 unicef fundraiser dear editor another successful unicef campaign was concluded in december with total sales of more than 5500 exceeding last years total i appreciate the advertising your paper gave to our campaign which no doubt had an effect on the number of sales the merchants of whitchurchstouffville who displayed posters in their windows also aided in this process a special thanks to the library staff and in particular mrs sheila mcleod for their assistance when unicef was sold at the whitchurchstouffville library thanks to george perezsalvio of the mount lighting and lina visconti of monaco florists for arranging for the sale of unicef at stouffville place mall the volunteers who sold unicef were very willing and dedicated it was gratifying to receive a number of phone calls from individuals wishing to help in answer to an appeal for volunteers thank you to all the volunteers who helped this year and because of all the people who purchased cards and gift items many children of third world countries will receive fresh water will be inoculated and will receive proper attention to their development one dollar can buy vaccines against diphtheria whooping cough and tetanus for 50 children this means that the sales in whitchurch- stouffville can buy vaccines for 275000 children since each dollar earned by the sale of unicef is matched by the canadian international development agency and the host country this figure greatly increases thats a truly wonderful contribution from our town thank you all yours truly bonnie hcidema unicef volunteer consignee