Through the Pages

35 YEARS AGO

Feb. 3, 1972 – Desire Belliveau headed a delegation from Weymouth to ask Digby Municipal School Board to add 18 classrooms to Weymouth Consolidated School.

Philip Woolaver QC was named solicitor for the Municipality of Digby, while James Wamback was appointed Court Crier. The municipality also named five men as sheep valuers.

The freighter Fossum was loading pulpwood at the Digby wharf, the first ship of its kind to use the facility since part of the wharf collapsed more than a year before.

Danny LeBlanc and Steven Theriault scored in a losing cause for the Digby ‘C’ team at a peewee match in Stoneham, Mass., as Digby lost 6-2. However, the ‘B’ team emerged victorious, with two-goal efforts by Randy Oliver and Brian Comeau, and singles by Tony Titus and Robert Dugas.

Digby Regional High’s Royals hockey team was also flying high, downing Lunenburg 7-2 on the strength of a four-goal game by Mike LeBlanc.

Tourism figures for 1971 showed ferry traffic through Digby had climbed by 112 per cent, and the province attracted a record 1.3 million visitors.

At the Capitol Theatre was ‘The McKenzie Break’, a POW escape drama about German escapees in a Second World War prison camp in Scotland. Stars were Brian Keith and Helmut Griem.

50 YEARS AGO

Jan. 31, 1957 – Perhaps the town’s women had raised a fuss, but there was a lack of entries in the beard-growing contest organized by firefighters for their Ice Carnival.

Garnet Neville of Digby was first stone on a rink skipped Health Minister R.A. Donahoe in the Strathcona Cup curling competition in Dartmouth. Nova Scotia rinks were competing against curlers from Scotland.

Heavy rains washed out some secondary roads in the county, but also disrupted rail traffic. The eastbound Dayliner spent the night in Weymouth. Due to water on the tracks at Bloomfield, the passenger train started to return to Yarmouth only to find tracks flooded at Meteghan.

Dr. T. Edgett was elected president of the Weymouth Board of Trade during a meeting in the Goodwin Hotel. ‘The Tall Men’ was showing at the Capitol Theatre, with stars Clark Gable, Robert Ryan and Jane Russell.

60 YEARS AGO

Feb. 6, 1947 – One of Digby’s most hotly contested elections in town history saw Victor Cardoza, Albert Warner and Dudley Dickie elected to three vacant seats on council. Cardoza led the polls as he swept in for his fifth consecutive term, but Seymour Denton was a surprising fifth among seven contenders. He had been nominated “against his will” and asked people not to vote for him, but 154 voters apparently disagreed.

Rev. E.C. Churchill was appointed pastor of United Baptist churches in Digby and Hill Grove.

A letter to the editor suggested building a barrage across Digby Gap in which turbines could generate electricity. A lock would allow marine traffic to pass, and a highway across the barrage would connect road traffic between Victoria Beach and Digby.

Guy Morehouse, driver of the Digby Neck bus, was guest speaker at the Y’s Men Club and recounted development of the mail route down the Neck since he began the run in 1911. He began with horse teams at a time when it took two days to get mail to the Islands, but in the 36 years of his service he went through 14 different makes of automobiles.

Morehouse was credited with developing snow fences after placing cut down spruce trees along sections of the road that were prone to drifting. The idea was so successful that the highways department took it further with the design of the wooden paling fence, he said.

He also noted the first car in Digby County was brought by ship from Boston and unloaded at Sandy Cove. It was always a source of trouble for its owner and the car’s remains could be found still in 1947 in Westport where it had been sent for repair.

Morehouse’s ambition was to someday drive a Digby Neck highway that was paved.

At the Capitol was the Walt Disney film, ‘Make Mine Music’. Among those providing voices in the animated film were Nelson Eddy, Dinah Shore and Benny Goodman.