WhIyFr.. p#m, W.kusdmy, Apt 6,S 1994. Page 7 It must be Spring. lhe signa are aIl over. Letse liet some: - Dog dirt ie growing on your lawli. - Your neighbour, the one who combe hie lawn weekly in the summer, is vacuuming bis lawn. - The frost has left the ground in your flower beds, allowing you, for the firet time since December 13, te dig deeply enougli to plant the $50 worth of tulipe and daffodils bouglit Iast fail. - The compost heap flows over. - The seed catalogue has been six weeks in the bouse but now you can't find it. - Certain people in your bouse make throat cleaing noises every tirne she looks in the garage, the kind of noises that usually end up in a two-day major weekend job. Soon. - A colleague gives you a eakaf of seeds and a bookiet on Jersey Giant Cabbage, w hich, thNe booklet saye, grows a metre and a haîf (seven feet) taîl and the stems of which make remarkable walking sticks, fit for royalty. The next dayis April 1. - Your car begin9 te make scratching sounds when you turn corners to, trhe leý and when you go over bumpe, and your gas mileage je haîf what it was last faîl and you try not te remember that at the last service job the manager told you the next tuneup would a big, coetly one, and would happen before Spring. - A certain person in your bouse je cauglit reading the seed catalogue and makng liste and makin1gciTkx sounds and musing about enlarging the gardens ang expan ding varieties. This, from someone whose forte (fort- eh?) runs more to pointing than digging and planting. - The clucking noises over the garage get louder every day. - Income tax time approaches. Or bas it gone already? Help. A post-literate household On the tepic of Spning- who could forget last Saturday's thunderstorm -- the first of the season, which ended in two inches of enow. Let us suppose, for a minute, that a gentleman spends Saturday night look * after children in someone elee'e bouseholid. Okcay, okay,Ilknow. Thate far-fetched. But bear with me. Suppose it was someone like a grandfatber, or a step-grandfatber, or a family friend . I dunno. You make up that part. Anyway, thie guy smooth as a baby's, uh, you know, gets the kids inte bed -- l~is je a Saturday niglit, remember -- by nine o'clock. A two-year-old, a five-year-old, an eight- year-old. Ail watcbing the ligbtnirig and shivering i the thunder and wondering if the Easter Bunny je waterproof and what would happen if lie got struck by hightning.uOkay, Maybe the eight-year-old je hie own daughter. So by ten o'clock, ail tbree of tbem are eound asleep. Sound. Asleep. Can. You. Believe. ItL Iniepite of the thunderstorin. Dashes te the basernent TV room, there to catch tbe last period of the Leafs-Ducks game. Leafs down 1-0. Boring game but here's .. . zzzz wshz ... zsec... zzz ... haes. That's the sound of cable going out. Imagine. The cable out on a Saturday niglit. So what're ya gonna do? Mayeyour first reaction ie, you're gonna read. Riglit. But you didn't bring a book. Not one of the eight books you've been reading since Christmnas. Not one. Thate essy. You id a book, any book, and read that. So you searcli the bouse. F'rom tep te bottom. Bottom to top. And y ou find: three books on Barney; a fourth grade reader; the hittle firetruck tbat could; three computer manuals; and a day old weekly newspaper. Doesn't anybody read anymore? If this happened te you, you'd end up reading the next three chapters in The Littie House on the Prairie, too. Which surely had te be more exciting than watching the Leafs get dunked 3-1 by the Dueke, fer cryin' out loud. Signs of Spring J' i - 1 rem lliiiii ý pli illl' -ID mmý 10 YEARS AGO from the Wednesday, April 4, 1984 edition of the WIIITY FREE PRESS " Forty-one local residents are opposing the construction of a service station at Broek Street and Manning Rtoad. " Mayor Bob Attersley bas spearheaded the formation of a Durham export club. " Special parking regulations for vehicles serving the hazidicapped are being considered by Town council. " Geof Middleton, owner of a stationery store in downtown Whitby, bas retired after 15 years in business. 35 YEARS AGO from the urd April 2, 1959 edition of the eà ffl'EEKLY NEWS *Construction of a new igh echool on Andersn Street has received tentative approval " Almonds'resi dents have voted in favour of Town water being piped to their houses west of itby. " Frank McCuflough bas opened a jewelry store in the Whitby Pla za. " Hugh T. Nichol has opened a law office i the Whitby Plaza. 125 YEARS AGO fromn the Thursday, April 1, 1869 edition of the WHiTBY CITRONICLE " A new invention, the velocopede, a type of bicycle, bas made its appearanoe on Whitby etreets. It is manufactured at Michael (YDonovan's carrnage factory. " Wbitby merchant James Campbell lias returned home from a trip to Europe to purchase stock for hie store. " Ette S.J. Conner died of brain fever at the age of two years, four monthsanzd 10 days. " A bankrupt sale of gold and silver Englieli watcbes je being held by auctioneer Levi Fairbanks. m 1II:.:.. .I.... .. .....N..........R i STAFFORD BROTHERS MONUMENT WORKS, 318 DUNDAS ST. E., 1946 In 1946, when they returned from service in World War Il, the late Charles and Ernest Stafford opened this monument wcrks in an old blacksmith shop. Still in the saine location, it is carried on today by Ernie'. daughter Barbara and ber husband Theo Thissen. Whltby Arclvm photo