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faitc 4 the tribune thurtav february 18 1971 established lsss c h nolan publisher jim thomas editor wna published every thursday by inland publishing co limited at j main st stouffville ont tel 6102101 single copies 13c subscriptions s500 per year in canada 9x10 elsewhere member of audit bureau of circulation canadian weekly newspapers association and ontario weekly newspapers association second class mail registration number 0s96 etlitarial second class citizens its high time residents now living on private roads in the town of whitchurch- stouffville were treated like ordinary tax- paying people instead of second class citizens these folks in our opinion have the same right to services such as sanding and snowplowing as those on public roads its a form of discrimination it had been our understanding that whitchurch council of 1970 had altered its private road policy we know of at least two instances where assistance was provided there must have been more the most recent request for con sideration came before council feb 9 from a resident on stouffville rr3 the application was turned down by a vote of 41 councillor mrs june button felt the town was obligated to provide this service and so do we start of something bigger in spite of a oneweek postponement the winter carnival sponsored by staff members and students of stouffville dist secondary school friday was a most successful venture the entire school particularly the junior grades entered into the spirit of the occasion even though the weather was hardly conducive to outside activity the feature in our opinion was the snow sculpturing contest with some of the completed projects so good the judges had difficulty selecting a winner staff physical education instructor jh rehill has suggested that such a program should not be confined only to the school but enlarged to take in the entire community he feels that the events should not be limited to a couple of hours in a single day but spread out to take in an entire week the proposal we feel is excellent with last weeks school venture and this sundays snowmobile races as a nucleos the town could indeed organize a real midwinter show its worth serious consideration a selfcreated problem york regions separate school board members are showing sudden concern over the increase in 1970 of student transportation costs up they say by about 25 percent while not actually saying so the board intimates that monopolies may indeed exist they use the watereddown word it appears that monopolies are in existence they also want a fullscale in vestigation into the matter to get the facts and are calling for a provincewide system of tendering to break up any threatened combine between com panies we say the york boards both public and separate school are a little late in worrying over this problem its self- created when the boards opted in favor of the major bus firms and automatically put the little guy out of business they established a monopoly over which they will have little control what authority can the board assert what alternative can the board offer competition that tends to keep prices down to an acceptable level is finished in this particular field the sky is now the limit that is unless the department of education wishes to step in and affix a standard fee such a move in our opinion is highly unlikely editor 9 mail dear sir i would like to comment on mr reids letter feb 4 edition of the tribune re lack of free call service to toronto from stouffville it is quite obvious why bell continues this policy for in my case alone our bill has never been under 15 monthly the last time this matter came up bell claimed to have conducted a survey the result being that free call service was not warranted somehow they must have bypassed our neighborhood im also sure there are enough people in the stouffville area willing to pay a slightly higher flat rate rather than the per call rate forced upon us perhaps a petition could be circulated and forwarded to the bell telephone offices with our next payment mike jeffrey south street stouffville dear sir in boosting the fares on the agincourt- peterboroughhavelock line the cpr is trying to price itself out of the market and drive passengers off the trains the commission hasnt even had time to give its decision on the cpr ap plication to discontinue service at the 13 day hearing ended january 11th the cpr appeared embarrassed that its train is jammed every night on at least four of the days cited by the cpr to prove losses a profit was being made the cpr answer is a fare hike the increases are leaside from 30 cents to 45 cents bus 25 cents agin- court 65 cents to 90 cents bus 50 cents locust hill 105 to 150 bus 100 claremont 145 to 205 bus 145 the cpr excuse is higher costs for extra cars but at the hearing cpr admitted that longer trains and more cars cost less per seat in montreal cpr headquarters there are 40 cpr commuter trains toronto has two both under application for discontinuance new toronto fares will be about double those for similar montreal area runs this shows the need for a metropolitan transit authority grid whereby passenger traffic would be taken away from the national railways and given to a metro transit authority concerned with the interests of the individual citizens as i have already proposed john c medcof mount albert ont dear sir the jan 28 issue of the tribune in cluded a news item that referred to a drop in attendance at the markham township sunday school convention several reasons were suggested i would like to suggest that many who would have attended were not out qhtiadipiti cohtltutomare m0re0u7vatdmh0m wbm u mmw rhm hembbi ubob mumi hmm mmbsm hmbbi komi mmm mb isucar and spice what a difference a day off makes l by bill smiley sometimes i feel nothing but pity for those timid wretches who scurry to southern warmer climes at the first fall of a flake they have betrayed one of the greatest aspects of the canadian character the stubborn tenacious stupidity that makes the rest of us endure through the winter this last week has been a grand one and let me hear no oldtimer snorting contemptuously that the winters aint what they used to be it started off ordinarily enough colder than a tax collectors heart in midweek things warmed up figuratively out of the west came a howling blizzard winds gusting from 40 to 60 mph snow that cut like a razorblade and a windchill factor temperature of 60 below zero somehow it was all fun i got up looked out the window and saw nothing but white the house was creaking and groaning like an arthritic climbing a rope ladder didnt even put on my long underwear took a look at the cat whose green eyes balefully threw back just try and throw me out in that buddy didnt plunged out the back door in great spirits and sank to the navel in snow made it to the garage because i knew thered be no cabs on the road the darn car started then the big decision with the eye of a computer i judged the snowbank decided to use the bombing attack closed my eyes and sent her backwards at full bore wound up like a stranded whale four wheels in the air body sitting high and dry on the snowbank did i quit not on your life a savage gleeful mood took hold of me shovelled wept called upon the lord in no un certain turns nothing doing com mandeered two highschool boys coming skidooing but were attending their own church services where speakers and programs were preplanned it was surprising to me that the organizers of the convention made no allowance for this i feel a weeknight would have been much better with regard to the debate dicksons vs dixons hill it would be appropriate to settle or the name adopted by the highways department dickson hill it looks attractive sounds pleasing and is easier to write the s denotes possession which in this case is meaningless committee of one for dickson hill by one had his nose frostbitten right back to his cheeks put him in the car at the controls we rocked and shovelled and shoved and made it crept to school through the white rage of the storm felt triumphant what a peaceful place there were 140odd kids and they had to be odd to walk it on a day like that and 50odd teachers same comment normal numbers 1300 kids 80 teachers we enjoyed the best school spirit in years we felt like a doughty band of the chosen the kids played games or received tuition the teachers joined them in the games or gave tuition unfortunately the weather cleared a bit next day and routine resumed however all were cheered by the prin cipals announcement that the lieutenant- governor had been visiting the county and had declared a school holiday for the following day friday won a curling game thursday night on the last shot this somewhat made up for losing my car keys in the swirling snow just before i left for curling things remained on the upswing long luxurious sleep friday morning theres nothing sweeter than sleeping on a day on which youd normally be working found the keys my only set by a minor miracle and its been going well ever since this morning it was 32 below but one of those perfect winter days bright sun smoke curling up like musical notes from all the chimneys snow crunching eyes watering lungs hacking dont tell me canada isnt a great place to be in winter it is unless you have enough money to get out i have a friend in his seventies cap tain dalton hudson retired great lakes captain hes a salty raconteur a frightening opponent at bridge or poker and a deadly billiards player but he is living refutation of my last statement he could go to florida and he does in spring he pilots a yacht to florida comes home and fishes here in summer returns to fetch the yacht in fall and says as he stomps off into a blizzard pipe clenched holy old hughie whod want to live in florida in the winter when you can live here a real canadian and to top off the week a pleasant and warming letter from mrs mary bellavance of lake lenore sask who claims i still think you ran into a door to get your black eye keep up the good work i didnt mrs b but ill try trouble is where you find it by jim thomas there are times like last weekend when the natives like to huddle together over games of euchre or checkers and reminisce about the old fashioned winters they used to know the wind can be whistling up and down main street at 60 miles an hour and visibility reduced to zero but theres always one in the crowd who looks back to 19 something or other when conditions were worse much worse not fit for man or beast no one is about to offer an argument for few can remember back seventy or eighty years i certainly cant but if im fortunate enough to live that long ill always remember saturday feb 13 1971 so will a good many folks hopelessly stranded by the storm while its true a few motorists had to be out in saturdays blizzard and again on sunday some others did not count me among the latter i was stuck-stuck- stuck bogged down in one drift after another and let me tell you long periods of pushing and shovelling can tell on a guy today my strength is so sapped i can barely lift the keys but scooting around the countryside even under such trying circumstances does have its rewards you meet many interesting people that way all anxious to talk and all with a story to tell like one young chap bogged down on the townline road near ringwood he had planned to take hisbest girl to a stouff ville high school dance he never made it to the school but he spent the night at her house there was just no other way she the car was pushing snow to the top of the lights but one thing i found out her mothers sure some cook and then there was the admitted snowmobilehater stuck east of elsons garage near altona a teen lad he couldnt recall his name took the family back to stouffville making three separate trips ill never criticize those things again he promised then there was the uxbridge couple that stayed overnight in the legion hall at claremont they had a bar there too said the master of the house but i dont drink at least not when my wifes around one toronto pair spent the night in their car on the bloomington road we had our love to keep us warm joked the driver we also had a good heater and a full tank of gas interrupted his fiance another motorist on the vandorf road wasnt quite so fortunate he was alone and his car ran out of gas after about two hours he was rescued by a whit church police officer after he helped dig the cruiser out of a drift and doesnt this take the cake a stouffville family decided around mid- t night they would treat themselves to a chinese dinner they called a restauranteur in markham of all places and the operator foolishly obliged he made it as far as ringwood where his car stalled halffrozen he went for help and i was taken in by stewart and alice vague his automobile halfburied was still parked on hwy 48 on sunday at noon and how about the skiing couple that stopped a pedestrian on main street sunday afternoon and asked if they were headed in the right direction to collingwood and then there was the stouffville gentleman who returned on thursday from bermuda he was nowhere to be seen on sunday so chances are hes gone back into hibernation for six more weeks stouffvilles police office was filled to capacity all saturday night with stranded families men women and children food was brought in from the officers homes and the p r burger that remained open into the early hours stouffville constable bill clause was one of many injury victims his car a 1965 buick was rammed headon by a westbound truck on the gormley road near ringwood constable clause suf- fered several fractured ribs his automobile was wrecked the truck driver david bennett rr 1 unionville was not hurt and last but not least a teenage lad came to our door and offered to shovel out the driveway my wife agreed to pay him 2 he asked for 3 i did it for nothing its drifted full again