Looking Back — Oct. 31, 2023

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 31/10/2023 (1063 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

SIXTY YEARS AGO

Mrs. J.W. Greenwood of Ontario, widow of Maj. John W. Greenwood, travelled to Camp Shilo yesterday to give her husband’s name to the campus’ latest school — the $250,000 Greenwood School.

Glynnis Bonk, a 21-year-old Brandon professional figure skater, escaped injury tonight in the gas explosion that took 62 lives at a “Holiday on Ice” performance in Indianapolis.

FIFTY YEARS AGO

Another season of play in the Brandon Minor Hockey Association got underway last night with 482 players and 32 teams in seven leagues taking part.

FORTY YEARS AGO

Guns from the resistance in U.S.-occupied Grenada were reported silent today and the leader of the short-lived Marxist military regime on the tiny Caribbean island country was reported in custody.

About 600 people came out this weekend to celebrate Oktoberfest at the Keystone Centre — the first to be sponsored by Brandon’s German-Canadian Cultural Association.

THIRTY YEARS AGO

The Brandon General Hospital Auxiliary recently donated $21,500 toward the purchase of the new Dolphin Spa Tub, while the RM of Cornwallis donated $5,000 toward the purchase of a hydraulic stretcher to be used with the tub.

River Phoenix, who got his start as a child actor in the coming-of-age film “Stand By Me,” collapsed and died after leaving a popular Los Angeles nightclub. He was 23.

TWENTY YEARS AGO

Strathclair council has approved plans for a huge hog operation near the hamlet of Menzie. The $4.5-million, 2,500-sow operation is to be a partnership between Oakburn grain farmer Wayne Drul and the hog corporation Premium Pork. The RM of Strathclair council voted 6-1 in favour of approving, with five conditions, Drul and Premium Pork’s conditional-use application.

At a reception held this evening, FP Canadian Newspapers board chairman Ron Stern announced that $1.5 million would be invested in the next six to nine months on a computer-to-plate system, leading edge technology in the industry, for the Brandon Sun. The system will eliminate the need for film and improve reproduction of the papers printed here.

TEN YEARS AGO

Life is returning to normal for a Westman town following a fire that destroyed its fire hall and town office in one swoop. Rapid City Coun. Jay Woloski said — thanks in part to corporate donations and the kindness of firefighters from nearby communities — the fire department is operational. And with some improvising, town operations and day-to-day life has continued.

Close to 500 students took part in MooMania yesterday at the Westoba Agricultural Centre of Excellence as part of a kickoff to the province’s biggest all-breeds cattle show and sale: the Manitoba Livestock Expo.

The Manitoba Court of Appeal on Wednesday ordered a new trial for a man convicted in the 1984 murder of a teenage girl. The Appeal Court ruled that the trial judge was wrong to deny Mark Edward Grant’s lawyer the right to present evidence that Candace Derksen might have been killed by someone else. Another girl had been abducted in a similar fashion nine months after Derksen’s death when Grant was in custody.