Pros 19 i5flaJ Editorial Pag Preserve the trees THE MILL POND surface of Fairy Lake Is like a giant picture upside down to get a different effect Staff mirror on a hot sultry morning last week Turn the Photo What you see when you haven got always someone to rub it in verbally A of local dialect which describes exactly the reaction I get when Im in the right place at the right time with the wrong equipment For instance being camera toting newspapermen we like to keep a camera handy Just in case something unusual happens Invariably when it does that when I carrying a loaf of French bread and a pound of butter instead of a turn lens reflex with a light meter I ve noticed this peculiarity many times On an assignment which requires sports pictures we try to angle in on goal the home plate or some other spot where action is crucial Take hockey for another for instance It customary to settle at one end of the rink confident the action will soon come your way It t So gather up the straps the strobe the battery and camera and transfer it to the other end of the rink where most of the hockey is being played My move is usually the signal for some smart on the team hemmed in behind the blue line to shake his pursuers loose barrel down centre ice pull the goalkeeper and rifle a shot into he net with the ac curacy of a Gordie Howe Picture goal but you got no picture and if it happens to be the home town hero who split the defense and scored there Where were you when they scored that one comes the taunt floating in from the bleachers just audible enough for everyone within miles of the arena to hear Of course there always a smart answer like Oh was slugging fruit flies at the other end But somehow despite the knowledge you were doing your best to shoot a photo you sense the big picture of the night has eluded you And you compensate for the loss by taking sequences which fall in the mediocre category A friend of mine takes a junket Into the north woods with a number of friends every fall to firing down a moose for an empty larder But invariably he returns empty handed while the rest of the party have pretty good luckand full larders What do you attribute your ex traordinary lack of moose meat to I asked with biting wit after another unsuccessful expedition His hangdog look changed to an expression of dismay I dunno he replied I saw just as many moose as the rest but I never had a gun in my hand when I sighted them His most embarrassing moment came as 20 years ago Taken from the issue of the Free Press Thursday August 1950 Reeve Tyler has received a telegram saying steps are being taken to ensure the continuance of services while the strike is on the Canadian railroads Heavy rains on Thursday afternoon figured In cavein on the corner of Elgin St and Bower Ave at about when two workmen were buried while working on the sewerage Installation Andrew Johnston of RR Acton and Albert Karris of Church St were sent to Guelph General Hospital after they were rescued from the avalanche of earth Johnson had a lacerated left shoulder and shock while Harris suffered cheat Injuries They were In the hole when the banks collapsed Harris was completely buried and Johnson was covered up to his waist They were uncovered In three to four minutes Mrs Mason an Acton resident for almost her entire life passed away this week Mr and Mrs Mason celebrated their golden wedding this year 50 years ago Taken from the Issue of the Free Press Thursday August 19 1930 One Big Day staged for last Saturday bad been well planned by the management and the program scheduled was a real days sport v WUUama was present accompanied by his aide and gave a characteristic soldier a address complimenting the veterans on their enterprise He requested to be taken to Fabview cemetery to see the veterans plot Masters Is the only soldier of the late war buried there and the General said be would have a standard soldier cross the trot or pace race Jack Powers came first The whippet races were a new feature for Acton and the little fellows put up a fast run The baseball match between Acton and was a good one with the score to for Acton The Guelph Jazz Band filled up no small part of the day pleasure Their numbers were liberal and they played well the class of music that appears popular today From shortly after 10 in the morning till midnight they were on the job and they seemed to enjoy their part of the day fun In the evening there was a garden party with a dance in the drill hall License inspector Harvey and the special municipal officers of the county are determined to round up such bootleggers and rum runners as are suspected of operating in Halton Never In the history of Acton school hare the premises been so attractive J Warden has been busily engaged and the ten rooms and corridors have been scrubbed the ceilings whitened the walls tinted and panelled 75 years ago Taken from the issue of the Free Press Thursday August Today is Acton regularly proclaimed Civic Holiday The forenoon is given over to quiet and restful recreation At 1 a lacrosse match will be played between Acton and Milton At 3 a County League baseball match was arranged between Oak ville and Beavers one of Toronto s strongest clubs At So dock a five mile bicycle race will be ridden At six clock the Sons of Scotland will take charge of the proceedings which will be Inaugurated with a march from the ball to the park of the Camp headed by the Highland Pipers Band from Hamilton During the evening there will be a tugof war between Halton and Wellington and an exciting porridge race in which all athletic Scot cbmen are expected to enter Miss May Matbeson of Hamilton who was first prize down broke one frosty fall morning presaging another perfect day for hunting He was awakened by the call of nature too which meant a journey down a leaf strewn path toa convenience in the birches Pulling pyjamas tightly about him feeling for his shoes with half frozen feet he out of the lodge door into the half of dawn and followed the crooked path He had almost reached the door of the relief station when he felt someone watched He turned and peered into the bush and almost simultaneously as a large bull moose ogled him from about yards out Instinctively he felt for the nearest lethal weapon which turned out to be the big oversized button his wife had sewed onto the pyjamas He reasoned quickly that the button bring down a mouse let alone a moose After a decent interval he peered out- just as a bunk mate pulled the trigger and downed the magnificent moose Thereliefwasinstant But it quite the same type he anticipated when ho left his warm bunk Facing a moose with an oversized button was a task he t quite up to at dawn in the north woods As he says What you don see when you haven t got a gun His bunk mate meanwhile out it was fortunate HE had a gun and could hear as well as see the dilemma on the leaf strewn path which winds from the lodge to the house in the back Scottish dancer at the World Fair will give exhibitions in her line A number of prominent Sons of Scotland and others will deliver addresses the evening Refreshments will be provided on the grounds Business was suspended in R pley for three hours when citizens and farmers gathered in the Presbyterian church to earnestly pray the Lord would favor that locality with rain Before the day was over they had received a heavy shower Three more stone flag crossings have been put in one on Main St at hotel on Mill St opposite Fellows St and a third on Bower Ave at Frederick St Carter Harvey is Justifiably proud of his dray horse Last Friday he hauled the new x 12 boiler for the Canada Glove Works weighing 7 300 pounds from the G T station to the glove factory with apparent ease THE ACTON FREE PRESS PHONE and Ed a Of fc Calx Don ydw Copyright 1970 Acton council s concern about the survival of a number of trees on the south side of Bower Avenue Is the type of thinking wevould like to encounter more often Trees of course provide shade and beauty but perhaps few people are aware they purify the air and add oxygen and moisture to It for the benefit of man Not too long ago a group of citizens tried to stop their city s works department from cutting down some sturdy shade trees on a street marked for widening Adult verbal protests had little effect Then a boy In the group up one of the trees ana refused to budge The result was that the mayor called a halt to the whole proect This group was taking con structlve ecological action to protect the trees from destruction How much better It would have been If the city officials were better educated In ecology so that any ill considered move to remove trees would never have gone past the planning stage We all seen the vast cement deserts In the city or tracts of asphalt which wind like ribbons through the treeless countryside They turn your stomach especially In hot muggy weather As Individuals we need to study our environment and see that we are not adding to or subtracting from It In a negative way Let delve Into alternative methods of pest control such as those of organic gardening Instead of being trigger happy with pesticide spray Let the earthworms work for us don t kill with heavy chemical fertilizers There are going to be proects where trees must be cut down to moke way for a building project to make a highway or street safer for traffic but It Is reassuring when you know town councils are concerned about the ecology so they save trees whenever possible There an old song about how only God can make a tree but we are the people who are expected to look after the oaks the maples elms and other varieties after they grown Let s not be careless with that stewardship Litter unsightly poor advertisement Man it Is said Is the filthiest animal on this planet He sows pollution dirties his water and distributes his garbage over the streets One need go no further than Acton to see the gum wrappers old newspapers cigarette butts cardboard cartons tin cans and bottles that Utter the streets Much of It perhaps Is thrown there by children who thoughtlessly unwrapped candy and tossed wrappers away However we have seen cigarette packages tossed out of car windows by adults Curbs downtown are often Uttered with trash thrown there heedlessly by people who unconsciously perhaps disclose the untidiness of their own en The town placed litter containers along the business section to en courage people to use them and help keep streets clean Some people do use them Many do not It Is a poor advertisement for any city town or village when visitors pass through to see untidy streets especially the business section which is supposed to be the show window of the community Their impressions may mean the town loses or gains an Industry a business or a new family Who wants to move to an untidy community where there Is no pride In appearance The Department of Highways has a stiff fine for those who litter the province highways We are not advocating a similar plan for littering town streets but wish there was some better method of control The business section of town is swept but other streets just continue to accumulate the trash until there a wind to sweep it up against fences and walls Maybe the answer Is In better education but we suspect if everyone who threw some trash onto streets was made to pick It up again It would be a giant step towards solving the problem Again we run Into the problem of who is going to enforce the by laws Not too long ago there was some discussion at council meetings about the advisability of a by law control officer someone who could see weeds were cut dogs tied and look after enforcement of other by laws Maybe It Is time to think about this again and perhaps add litter con to his duties Bylaw enforced with discretion An loitering by law passed in Oakville Is getting quite a play In the dally papers with the pros and cons sounding off and the police squarely In the middle A policeman s lot Is not a happy one as an old saying goes damned if he does and damned if he doesn we have been having our own confrontation In a quieter way Georgetown has had a by law similar to s for several years now The idea like most laws is not to persecute but to give police the power to act when the necessity arises Though some will disagree we interpret all laws in this way A speed limit does mean that a policeman automatically Jumps on every motorist driving a few miles faster He uses his Judgment to determine whether the motorist Is callously disregarding the law and Is creating a hazard to others Loitering Is an even less exact type of thing to determine and surely cannot be so strictly en forced that a group of people cannot stop for a chat The by law was passed to stop unpleasant Incidents which can arise when such groups become a mulsance to other traffic Young people particularly will complain when they are told by an officer to move on That snot new Sugar and Spice by bill smiley This summer I feel distinctly that some malicious witch or warlock has put a curse on me Don ask me why I t done no thin to nobody There been nothing serious or tragic Just a lot of little things that seem to wind up spelling hex Why for example should there be a huge wasp a nest in the middle of my hedge when the filthy little brutes have never built there before Why should I trip over a rock take a chunk the size of a silver dollar out of my shin and sprain my thumb trying to save myself Why should my waistline suddenly leap from 31 to a snug Why should my daughter fall in love with a guy of whom she says I wouldn marry him if he were the last man in the world But it not just what happened to me I seem to be carrying the spell around with me and am beginning to feel like a Jonah Went to a delightful parry Everyone was pleasant Except that a couple of pounders wound up in a state of deep um brage That a sort of purple One had told the other during a discussion of jogging and waistlines that he was just a big fat pig Not nice But why was I the only male left to keep them from coming to carnage All 140 pounds of me Went sailing with friends on a perfect summer day Why did a terrific storm come out of nowhere Because I was on board I sure of it Last Sunday went out as crew with a friend who races his sailboat He figure on winning with a crewman who doesn t know a luff from a larboard But be also didn t figure on winding up two miles behind every other boat including one he beau regularly We hit every patch of dead calm in the bay while the other boats in variably caught a breeze which would vanish by the time we got there Why Another friend invited me for a day fishing Came the day ideal for fishing Came also A phone call saying he d put a rod through his crankshaft or something equally horrible and his motor was ruined You think that was just coincidence The other night I did go fishing with my law Good boat good motor lots We grew up In a busy part of a large city and when a gang of young people gathered on a main corner It was never long before a man In blue was breaking us up It was only years later that we derstood why he was doing so According to town officials police have been criticized by parents of young people who have been told to break It up when they gather in commercial areas Surely a parent should realize that this is not individual persecution of their youngster but only a means of keeping Georgetown the quiet untroubled town It has been and should continue to be The Georgetown Herald of worms and minnows perfect time of evening andahotspot where some nice bass the day before I don t have to tell you what we caught About four pounds of weeds while a chap In the next boat hauled in a lunker Last rught we went out to visit snot her brother in law They taken a cottage to get away from the terrible heat of the city for a week That brief visit fixed him Today It s sweaters and long pants weather with a howling wind and the temperature down about forty degrees They II have a miserable week thanks to me These are just few incidents from a catalogue as long as your leg But I beginning to think that whom the gods would destroy they first make mad And I getting mad I can put up with my normal stupidity Like a from the revenue people for a to put our suitcases in the trunk of the car and finding It full of elm blocks for the fireplace which my fatherin law had given me last spring and having to unload them In the beat and my brand new sport shirt Or having the cat claw me about the head and shoulders on three separate occasions because she like driving in a car That was my wife a stupidity But I can help feeling that there something sinister some kind of a trend In all the other little accidents Somebody out there Is trying to get roe Today I convinced of It Woke up with violent stomach cramps that turn me Into a white sweating wretch about every twenty minutes Ate ana drank be same things night as the others in me house Why should I be the only one to wind up with dire rear Why