Remember when…

Here’s a look at what was making the news 15 and 50 years ago in the Hants Journal.

15 YEARS AGO (END OF JUNE, EARLY JULY 2007 EDITIONS)

The long-awaited Hants

•

Aquatic Centre officially opened to the public on July 2. It took about three years to get the new facility built.

A movement was underway

• to have Freddie Wilson, who was well-known for waving at motorists from the Highway 101 overpass near Hantsport, recognized by renaming the Bog Road overpass after him.

Father’s Day marked the

• first time Nova Scotians could purchase liquor on a Sunday. Betty Northup, the owner of Lakeside Variety in Vaughan, said “sales rose dramatically” that day. She said allowing Sunday sales would help small convenience stores stay alive.

The story of Elizabeth

•

MacDonald’s death made the newspaper’s front page. The Windsor resident, who had an aggressive form of multiple sclerosis, travelled

husband to Switzerland with her Eric, a retired Anglican priest, for an accompanied suicide. A complaint was made by the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition and the RCMP launched an investigation into what role her husband had in her death. An excerpt from a letter she wrote prior to dying was published in the Journal, outlining her choice and lobbying to have medically assisted suicide available in Canada.

A graffiti artist was tagging

• popular spots around Windsor with orange spray paint. The latest tag — ‘run the streets’ — appeared on the steps to the Hants County War Memorial Community Centre.

More than 200 people celebrated

• the grand opening of the Windsor Fire Department’s Southwest Hants substation — a.k.a. Station

2 — on June 16. It took about a decade of fundraising and lobbying by residents of the Vaughan area to make the station a reality.

Martock farmer Guy Dugue

• and his son, Sam, opened a new provincially-inspected meat processing plant and store at the family farm. Guy Dugue had moved to the area from St. Pierre and Miquelon in 1979 and had been in the

beef business his entire life.

Rainbow Farms, owned

•

Rawdon’s and operated by Upper Bud Weatherhead and his daughter Barbara Hagell, was doing brisk business harvesting and exporting blueberries. In 2006, the farm processed more than seven million pounds — about a quarter of which went to Europe and Japan.

With a week remaining before

• Paul Kenrick, a 36-year employee with the Department of Natural Resources, was due to retire, he took one last Pellet Group Inventory (PGI) in Upper Falmouth. He had been using the same PGI survey area for 25 years — enabling him to determine

a general indication of the health of the deer population. In 2007, it was considered stable in Hants County.

Firefighters from Windsor

• to Lawrencetown attended an early morning fire call in Waterville that saw a warehouse burn to the ground.

Annie Wilson became the

• first female King Lion to represent the Windsor and District Lions Club in the organization’s 46-year history.

Avon View High School

• students taking part in the Grade 10 construction tech class helped build a 16 by 25foot gable-end garage for the school as part of their curriculum.

50 YEARS AGO (END OF JUNE, EARLY JULY 1972 EDITIONS)

A new hospital for Windsor

• was nearing reality. The Nova Scotia government allocated funds for a construction program to replace the aging Payzant Memorial Hospital on Wiley Avenue.

The hospital opened on October 24, 1905, and was enlarged in 1914 and then again in 1950. At the time of the funding announcement for a new hospital, the Payzant Memorial Hospital had 75 hospital beds. The new facility was going to have 80 to 100 beds.

Windsor had a traffic problem.

• It was noted on the front page of the paper that Windsor resident C.W. Stephens, who lived in a house on the corner where King Street, O’Brien Street and Wiley Avenue intersected, used a counter to monitor the traffic that passed by his residence in a seven-and-a-half-hour period on a Sunday in June. A total of 16,093 vehicles drove by. He was going to follow up

conducting the informal survey by another one during a business day. The peak traffic time saw 1,623 vehicles passing by within 30 minutes.

Work began on constructing

•

the new Avon Valley

Golf Course in Falmouth. It was reported that the first 12 holes should be ready for use in 1973.

Windsor Regional High

•

School held a record graduation ceremony, awarding high school certificates to 100 students.

The Hants Journal was advising

• readers that there was no safe way to view the July 10 eclipse, and attempts to do so could result in scarring and burning of the retina.

Dominion Stores was hosting

• a billion-dollar bargain party. Among the deals was a quart of Richmello ice cream for 47 cents, three pounds of Schwartz’s peanut butter for 99 cents, and a six-pack of Pepsi-Cola (26 flowing ounces) for $1.29.

For employees, the store also launched a nationwide cashier of the month contest, where shoppers were encouraged to recommend their favourite cashier. If selected for the month, the customer would receive $12 in groceries and the cashier would receive a dream vacation for two.

The Imperial Theatre in

• downtown Windsor was showing a variety of films, including The Organization, featuring Sidney Poitier;

The Magic Sword; The Wild Bunch; Targets, starring

Boris Karloff, Tim O’Kelly, Nancy Hsueh, James Brown and Sandy Baron; The Carpetbaggers; and Nevada Smith, starring Steve McQueen.

In the Hants History column

• from 1947, it was noted that Windsor’s new swimming pool at the Lancaster Sports Club opened. Also opening for the summer was Cheverie’s Hiawatha Camp, which welcomed 60 girls.

In the Hants History

• column from 1922, it was reported that some Windsorians awoke to an earthquake, with the most pronounced of two earthquakes at 5:30 a.m. In business news from 1922, Dr. Gordon K. Smith opened his medical practice in Grand Pre and Windsor Foundry and Machine Company was reported to have received numerous orders for stoves from N.B. and P.E.I., with one Saint John firm requesting 140 Silver Moons.

Editor’s Note: The 25 years ago section is temporarily unavailable. If you have a collection of newspapers from 1997, please contact carole. morris-underhill@saltwire.com.