SIXTY YEARS AGO

Bev Bird, 16, of Lyleton, Melody Models Clothing Club, and 19-year-old Larry Chambers of the Belmont 4-H Beef Club were chosen as top 4-H members at the 1963 Boissevain Rally.

FIFTY YEARS AGO

Laureen Sharratt, 14, of the Brandon Figure Skating Club, achieved the ultimate in figure skating recently, her gold medal in dancing.

All business locations at Brandon Shoppers Mall will soon be filled, says a spokesman for the mall administration.

FORTY YEARS AGO

The Brandon Chamber of Commerce has added six new members to its board of directors. They are: Donald Cable of Christie School Supply Ltd., John Donald of Dunwoody and Company, Jim Figol of Figol Electric Ltd., Allan Gee of Pacific Western Airlines, Vern Gilbertson of People’s Market Place and Robert MacDonald of CKLQ radio station.

THIRTY YEARS AGO

The Snowbirds were in western Manitoba the last two days to perform at the Souris air show. The air show was held to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the airfield at Souris.

TWENTY YEARS AGO

Skyrocketing natural gas prices have forced Simplot to shut down its Brandon plant and lay off more than 100 of its 230 workers this summer, and company officials are making no guarantees on when the plant could be up and running again. A regularly scheduled maintenance turnaround, necessitating a suspension in production, was to occur at Simplot for three weeks this June. That shutdown period will now begin next week and extend until at least mid-August. Layoffs will come for permanent employees in mid-July. Most of the 300 contract tradespeople who are usually hired to work during the maintenance period will not be hired on.

TEN YEARS AGO

Friends and family in Brandon and Erickson are fondly remembering two young women who died in a crash near Portage la Prairie on Wednesday as free spirits. Kelly Murray, 21, from Erickson and Kya Angelhart, 20, from Winnipeg were travelling from Brandon to the provincial capital when the vehicle Murray was driving crashed into the side of a semi-trailer.

Planes from American air bases are flying over Canadian airspace on what’s being called the first-ever patrols of their type. The planes — Cessna 182s operated by the Civil Air Patrol — take off and land in the United States, but are surveying water levels in Canada, as authorities assess flooding potentials over the Souris River basin. So far, the aerial patrols have all been into southeastern Saskatchewan, but it’s expected they’ll eventually fly over Manitoba as well. Crews of three in each plane are taking photos of water levels before they hit North Dakota.