Looking Back — Sept. 23, 2023

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 23/09/2023 (1084 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

SIXTY YEARS AGO

Rich Bull, who still has a couple of years of junior golf eligibility remaining, added another laurel to his fine season as he won the Western Manitoba Junior Golf Championship. The boys had the largest entry in history, with 68 competing in 10 age groups. Judy Pochinco retained her girls’ laurels as she topped a field of eight.

U.S. President John F. Kennedy suggested that the Soviet Union and the United States combine talents in a joint expedition to the moon.

FIFTY YEARS AGO

Premier Ed Schreyer said yesterday that Manitoba’s economy has never been healthier and that the province has out-performed the nation as a whole in almost all areas of economic activity so far this year.

Brandon firefighters were called to Cook Lumber at 13th Street and Park Avenue at about 6 a.m. and battled for two hours to bring a fire in a shed of plywood and insulation material under control. The fire destroyed two trucks and two forklifts and scorched another two trucks parked at Howard’s Van and Storage. Firefighters left the scene after 12 hours.

FORTY YEARS AGO

After a 10-year battle, the construction of the Manitoba fire college is finally underway. The construction of the $1.9-million training college adjacent to the Assiniboine Community College should be completed by 1985.

Workers have become sick from intolerably hot working conditions at the Brandon Mental Health Centre’s antiquated laundry.

Five more cases of western equine encephalitis in humans have been confirmed in Manitoba, bringing the total this year to 13.

THIRTY YEARS AGO

The village of Tilston’s worst years are now history, but then again, so are its best years. Last year the auto repair service burned, last month the Roman Catholic Church held its final mass and last week the community’s only remaining business — the Tilston Corner Store — shut its doors.

TWENTY YEARS AGO

Armed with a $3-million loan from the provincial government, Springhill Farms is expected to start kill floor operations next week. “They’re indicating they’re going to return a full complement to maintain operations indefinitely,” says Grant Warren, spokesman for the United Food and Commercial Workers Union. A full complement would mean the recall of the more than 400 workers who were laid off from the plant over the summer, when the company scaled back operations and finally shut down in August, due mainly to low hog prices.

A fire over the weekend caused tens of thousands of dollars damage to a still-under-construction seniors complex. Firefighters were called to a blaze early Sunday afternoon at the Crocus Gardens development on Queens Avenue. The fire, which is believed to have started Saturday evening, blackened walls throughout the basement parkade and up to the third floor.

TEN YEARS AGO

Rome wasn’t built in a day, but a new playground at Glenboro Elementary School was. The small community has finished a playground after nearly two years of fundraising by a group of community members without any financial help from the government. The group raised $98,000 since the committee was formed in December 2011. More than 140 volunteers spent all day Saturday building the new playground, which replaces the school’s old structures, some of which were close to 40 years old.

Canada offered its support to Kenya Sunday, saying it was “prepared to do more” to help the east African country recover from a horrific terrorist attack that killed at least 68 people, including two Canadians.