Looking Back — Jan. 15, 2024

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 15/01/2024 (771 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

SIXTY YEARS AGO

Vandals set fire to the 20-foot pile of used Christmas trees on the North Hill which were destined to baptize Brandon’s Winter Carnival this evening. About 1,000 of the original 3,000 trees were saved for the opening ceremonies tonight.

Ed Shamray and his Oak River mates captured the Grand Challenge event in the Strathclair-Shoal Lake annual bonspiel in Strathclair last night by taking a close 7-5 decision from the Norville Brooks foursome from Hamiota.

FIFTY YEARS AGO

The former Health Unit building on the 200 block on Eighth Street has received another reprieve from demolition at least for a month.

Technical experts have eliminated the theory that a single, accidental act caused the 18 1/2 minute gap in subpoenaed Watergate tapes. Rose Mary Woods, U.S. President Richard Nixon’s personal secretary is claiming she used the recorder and accidentally pushed record instead of play erasing a conversation between the president and H.R. Haldeman.

FORTY YEARS AGO

A contract with Sudan may delay seasonal layoffs at the Morris Rod Weeder Ltd. machinery plant in Minnedosa. The plant will be building 100 discers for the African country.

Magician Brian Glow performed his magic illusions before a crowd of 200 at the Western Manitoba Centennial Auditorium this weekend.

THIRTY YEARS AGO

Local Woolco employees were reeling yesterday after hearing the 18th Street store had been bought by U.S. retailing giant Walmart. The purchase is part of Walmart’s US$300-million acquisition of 120 of the 142 Woolco stores across Canada.

The Brandon Police Service took time yesterday morning to honour three Brandon men who foiled an attempted robbery at McDonald Optical early Dec. 8. Chief Brian Scott presented plaques to William Galanis, Gordon Diment and Marcel Maillet.

TWENTY YEARS AGO

Brad Zander and a group of Westman Conservatives will try to convince provincial MLA Merv Tweed to represent the region in the next federal election. Zander, a Brandon University student, and a number of fellow Conservatives launched the Draft Merv Tweed campaign yesterday, hopeful that the Progressive Conservative MLA from Turtle Mountain will receive a groundswell of support and run for the new Conservative party’s nomination for the Brandon-Souris riding.

Violinist Kerry DuWors, who had originally been filling in as violin instructor at Brandon University for this academic year, has accepted the tenure-track position as of Aug. 1, 2004.

TEN YEARS AGO

The Eighth Street Bridge has been hit by a garbage truck and structural concerns mean it will be closed until further notice. Police said early Tuesday afternoon that a vehicle had hit the beleaguered bridge and that the city’s engineering department had been called out to evaluate the damage. Photos show that the culprit was a private company’s garbage truck carrying a large refuse bin.

City police are working to track down a revolver which went missing from a stolen police vehicle. Meanwhile, the officer whose vehicle was stolen says he isn’t embarrassed by the incident. Rural Municipality of Whitehead Police Service Chief Const. Doug Gormley says — during decades of service as a police officer — he’s known others to have their squad cars stolen.