Hants history
Here’s a look at what was making the news 25 and 50 years ago in the Hants Journal.
25 years ago (Sept. 8 and 15, 1993 editions)
• Clean-up efforts were underway after fungus, discovered at the Rawdon Elementary School, was making students sick.
Toxic mould, believed to have entered the building via a leaky roof, was located in the school’s locker rooms.
• Windsor boy Johnathon Benedict, 11, appeared on the front page of the newspaper offering up a message to other youth — wearing a bicycle helmet can save a person from serious injury.
Benedict took a spill while travelling on Eldridge Road. The accident left him badly bruised, with several cuts and scrapes. But, he said it could have been much worse after seeing the damage to his bicycle helmet.
It was not mandatory for youth to wear helmets in Nova Scotia in 1993.
• A fire in Walton that destroyed a vacant service station was deemed suspicious in nature. The RCMP was looking for the occupants of two vehicles that were spotted nearby moments before the fire.
• A group of concerned Walton citizens were working with the federal government to try to take over the local wharf, which the feds had deemed to be surplus.
• The largest historic mural in Atlantic Canada was being commissioned in Windsor. The mural, which was about 70 feet by 16 feet, was being painted by Kenneth W. Spearing, of Centre Burlington, and was a recreation of the 1905 Windsor waterfront.
This wasn’t Spearing’s first mural. He had painted a mural in Calgary for the 1988 Olympic Games.
• A special concert was held at the Panuke Road Recreation Park to raise funds to support Windsor Plains Recreation and Social Development. A total of $500 was raised. Organizers hoped to make it an annual event.
• As of the Labour Day weekend, the special events co-ordinator of the Windsor Country Fair announced that they had reached a record attendance of 150,000 visitors, with more big events still to take place before the season ended in October.
• Five candidates were vying for the Annapolis Valley/Hants federal riding seat. They were: John Merriam (Reform), Pat Nowlan (independent), Jim White (P.C.), John Murphy (Liberal), and Dick Terfry (NDP).
• A 22-year-old Acadia University student from Hong Kong died after a single vehicle accident on Highway 101 near Windsor. Two other students were taken to the hospital.
• Robert Nunn, of Scotch Village, was a young man who spent his remaining days warning students about the dangers of AIDS. He died in September 1993. The Journal noted: “To stare death in the face, and make it a positive experience by helping others, takes a lot of courage. We can all learn from Robert’s perseverance and strength during his ordeal. He deserves to be remembered.”
• The Canadian Pony Club team captured the Inter Pacific Rally and the Nations Cup. Falmouth’s Sara Snelling was the only member from the Atlantic provinces to be part of the team.
• Five members of the Pisiquid Canoe Club — Mark Fry, Kevin Lynch, Jamie Boyd, Tim Lynch and Ian Frenette — won silver and bronze medals in war canoe events at the Canadian Canoe Championships in Ottawa.
50 years ago (Sept. 4 and 11, 1968 editions)
• MLA Norman Spence donated a purebred Hereford heifer as a prize to help raise funds for the new Windsor hospital. Tickets were on sale, with the winning ballot to be drawn at the Hants County Exhibition.
• The family of four-year-old Stephen Underwood, of Scotch Village, was filled with gratitude after the little boy, who was struck by a car after running out into the road, was treated in hospital and received only minor cuts from the accident.
• Garth Pulsifer Flowers Ltd. purchased the Windsor branch of the florist firm H.H. Pulsifer Ltd. The Journal reported that the new firm intended to operate in the same location, which had been used for the previous 22 years.
• There were 830 students enrolled at Windsor Regional High School in the fall of 1968.
• The season for the Windsor Community Swimming Pool was coming to a close. It was noted 721 children took part in morning instructional classes during the summer.
• Digby teacher Anne Elizabeth Kaye, formerly of Windsor, was “gaining prominence as a poet.” She had more than 50 poems published and six poems had been set to music as of 1968.
• Leslie Howie, of Windsor, won second place in the Elmer’s Summer Safety Contest and received a Flyte Accessory Kit.
• The first hole-in-one of 1968 at the local golf course was made by Halifax resident Medford Mosher.
• The Hants County Camp of Gideons donated 60 special Hospital Testaments at Payzant Memorial Hospital. The books featured large print and were light weight for “convenient handling by the patients.”
• The Imperial Theatre in Windsor had Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, starring Spencer Tracy, Sidney Poitier and Katharine Hepburn for “six big days” on the big screen. Following that special bill, the theatre was showing Ivan Tors’ Gentle Giant, Blood Alley, starring John Wayne and Lauren Bacall, Pinocchio in Outer Space, plus Guns for San Sebastian, starring Anthony Quinn, Anjanette Comer and Charles Bronson.
The theatre was to be closed for the duration of the Hants County Exhibition.
• In the Hants History column from 1943, it was noted that “in proportion to population, Nova Scotia leads the Dominion” in the number of Armed Forces recruits.
In more wartime news from 1943, Pte. Donald Card, of Windsor, died from wounds while Pte. Albert Edward MacNamara, of Windsor, and L/ Cpl. Harlan Austin Ross, of Elmsdale, were injured.
In September 1918, Hantsport appointed the first woman to hold the role of principal in the history of the town’s schools. Her name, however, was not listed.
In the Hants History column from 1918, it was noted that the Samuel Courtney, a 500-ton twin-screw auxiliary schooner was ready to be launched in Noel on Sept. 21.
In wartime news from 1918, “Nursing Sisters” Mildred Dill and Sadie Smeltzer, both from Windsor, arrived in England to help with the war effort. Killed in action was Capt. D. Lionel Teed, M.C., of King’s College; Pte. Ted Cochrane, of St. Croix; Colin R. Martin, of Falmouth; G. W. McGill, of Kennetcook; and H. F. Beach, of Nine Mile River.