50 Years Ago: Pedestrians irk famed author

Receiving their caps and certificates at Digby General Hospital were x-ray and lab trainees Dolores Fraser of Deep Brook, Pamela Trask of Ship’s Harbour, and Edith Boudreau of Petit de Gras.

The Legion team, with a 5-0 record, won the Little League baseball championship game, downing Kiwanis 20-5 behind the two-hit pitching of brothers Mark and Derrick Jordan.

Digby Save-Easy was advertising grade A large eggs at 75 cents a dozen, and Chiquita bananas at 17 cents a pound. That Canadian staple, Kraft Dinner, was 23 cents a box.

Theatregoers had a choice with the opening of the Little Cinema Drive-in: Clint Eastwood in ‘Magnum Force’ at two dollars a carload, or ‘Oklahoma Crude’ at the Little Cinema with stars George C. Scott and Faye Dunaway. 50 years ago July 30, 1959 – Famed American author Faith Baldwin departed Digby for her home in Norwalk, Conn., “tremendously impressed” with southwestern Nova Scotia where she had been vacationing. As much as she enjoyed her stay, Baldwin found she couldn’t get used to the seeming indifference of pedestrians for traffic.

On a round trip between Yarmouth and Bar Harbor, more than 1,000 passengers were carried on the ferry ‘Bluenose’—setting a new record since the vessel entered service three years before.

Courier editor Edith Wallis, president of the Nova Scotia Weekly Newspaper Association, was among those invited to attend the Halifax dinner for Queen Elizabeth II. Prime Minister John G. Diefenbaker and Premier Robert Stanfield hosted the dinner.

In an editorial, ‘Recession over’, the Courier quoted Financial Post writer Dalton Robertson: “Higher retail sales, rising industrial production and an increasingly healthy employment situation are providing full evidence that the Canadian economy is firmly caught up in a flood tide of recovery.” (Robertson must have been paid by the word. —Ed.)

Pyne’s Market was selling two boxes of Kraft Dinner for 33 cents.

Playing at the Capitol Theatre was ‘The Tin Star’, with Henry Fonda and Anthony Perkins. 60 years ago July 28, 1949 – Two men were injured and two more escaped unharmed when a mammoth semi-trailer carrying equipment of Robbins’ Circus crashed through the steel bridge at Gilbert’s Cove and plunged 35 feet. A trailer following close behind that carried six elephants was able to stop in time.

Still with animal news, a bear cub that had been penned at the Bear River home of Charles Balser “went Hollywood and joined Robbins’ Circus,” noted the Courier. The cub had been attracting crowds to the Balser home.

Linda Darnell and Cornel Wilde were stars of ‘Forever Amber’, playing at the Capitol.