6 ~ Wednesday,-April 5; 1989.-.North Shore-News

Stand aside, Yuppies here come the Woopies!

THE WOOPIES ARE ON A ROLL and the place to watch them rolling this Friday, Saturday and Sunday, April 7-9, is under the sails at the Vancouver Trade and Convention

Centre.

The group’s economic and polit- ical clout is fast pushing aside the Yuppies, all of whom are now desperately anxious to end up as Woopies — acronym for Well Off Older People. These wili be the prime audience for the three-day “Time of Your Life’? show, 1C a.m. to 6 p.m. daily, which is ex- pected to attract a minimum of 10,000 over-50s. The ‘‘aging’’ North Shore will doubtless supply @ generous percentage of them,.

First, however, a word of expla- nation for you kiddies under 50. More and more Grandpas and

Darlene Wesitertund ... Most Oul- standing Grad.

Grandmas aren’t a bit like they us- ed to be in the old days.

They can now look forward to living one-third of their lives in healthy, active retirement. Over 11 per cent of Canada’s population is currently over 65 and in just over 40 years one in every four Cana- dians will b> a senior. According to Statistics Canada, 39 per cent of over-65s say they’re ‘‘very satisfied’ with their health and a further 39 per cent are reasonably satisfied. Asked about happiness, 48 per cent claimed to be ‘“‘very happy”’ and 45 per cent reasonably happy.

Many of them also have more money than Gramp and Gran ever had before. StatsCan figures show that poverty among seniors — defined as 62 per cent or more of income needed for food, clothing and shelter — dropped from 64 per cent in 1973 to 20 per cent in 1985. And from 1979 to 1986 their real income rose by an average of 87 per cent, compared to an average of 59 per cent for non-seniors. The seniors beat inflation by 23 per cent, while many non-seniors didn’t even keep pace with it.

That’s the background to this weekend’s show. Its highlights cover everything that the new ‘‘age wave’? of comfortably heeled, long-living seniors is into — from health and financial planning to recreation and sports, real estate, fashion shows and cravel. A major new health program for seniors wiil be announced by the Health Ministry. There’ll be seminars by banks and other financial experts on ‘‘Golden Age’’ money management; mature motorcycle

Save the trees

NVIRONMENTAL WATCHDOGS have lately

been focusing attention on the dramatic con-

frontation pitting Amazonian natives against

the Brazilian government. At stake is the destruction

of the Amazon rain forest, a massive stretch of green space some have called the lungs of the earth.

While the big battle is yet to be resolved, smaller,

but no less important, skirmishes are taking place right

in our own backyards.

The natural North Shore setting, a popular selling point used to draw new residents into the community,

is constantiy under attack.

Because the loss of trees to new development locally isn’t as obvious to the eye or as stirring to the emotions as a swath of clear-cut logging or the slash and burn of the jungles, the cutting goes on without much notice or public backlash. {t’s relatively easy for a developer moving into an area to cut and fill a property at will.

Yes, there are bylaws, guidelines and policies in place to conserve prominent landscaping features. But if there is no political will to eaforce legislation already in place, if legislation is enacted simply to placate the few who are vocal about conservation, then trees will continue to fall unnecessarily.

Local development legislation needs teeth. More than that, it needs people standing behind it who are willing to bite once in a while.

drill! champions; Nancy Greene telling why ‘‘It’s Never Too Late to Ski’’; exotic cruise films; im- presario Hugh Pickett with his “Memoirs of the Stars’’; 110 ex- hibitors showing special products and services for seniors — even a “For Grandparents Only Toy Shop.”’

To the Woopies of 1989 the $5 tickets to the show inust sound like a steal!

sa ¢

TAILPIECES: Congrats to Darlene Westerlund of North Van on winning the 1989 Most Out- standing Graduate award of the faculty of Commerce and Business Administration at UBC... If North Van’s Reg Butler could have diverted his luck to Saturday’s 6/ 49, he’d row be several millions richer. Playing crib last week, he got the once-in-a-lifetime ‘‘29”’ . . . Joun Castle has lost it again — this time the name and phone number of the kind North Van gent who works in Burnaby and phoned her in Calgary last December after finding the ‘‘little black book’’ she lost at Vancouver airport. Could he please contact her at her new addrcss —- 14380- TIA Avenue, Surrey, B.C. V3W OL2 (sorry, sir, no phone numoer vet listed!) ... Richard McBride Elementary in New West celebrates 100 years of education in the Sap- perton area with a homecoming party for all former students and staff Friday, May 12. If you fit, call Lynda Meredith, 521-6318 or 522-6744, for details... Happy fourth anniversary today, April 5, to North Van’s Ernie and Marilyn Earmshaw, back home after a dream vacation on safari in Kenya .. . And happy birthday tomor- row, April 6, to Rev. Ray Murrin, rector of St. John’s, North Van. eet

Publisher

Associate Ediior

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Peter Speck Managing Editor... . Barrett Fisher Noel Wright

Advertising Directur . Linda Stewart

North Shore News, founded in 1969 as an independent suburban newspaper and qualilied under Schedule 111, Paragraph Ii) of the Excise Tax Act, is published each Wednesday, Friday and Sunday by North Shore Free Press Ltd. and disinbuted lo every door on tne North Shore. Second Class Mait Registration Number 3885. Subscriptions North and West Vancouver, $25 per year. Mailing rates available on request. Submissions are welcome bul we cannot accep! responsibility tor unsohcited material including manuscripts and pictures a which should be accompanied by a stamped, addressed

WRIGHT OR WRONG: Lay all the economists in the world out

head to toes, and they still won’t reach a valid conclusion.

NEWS photo Mike Wakefield

“BEN AND BEN, the smoke machine men’’ ... Cauifeild Efementary students Ben Goodier () and Ben Williams demonstrate theiz contraption showing what smoking does to lungs at the school’s recent 50-exhibit

Science Fair.

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