60 YEARS AGO: Police chief shot in back

35 years ago

Oct. 19, 1972 – A 60-foot trailer was ferried across Petite Passage bound for Freeport where it was to become home and office for a nurse serving the Long and Brier islands.

Noted pianist Edith Stearns, professor music at Boston University, was holding a recital in the multi-purpose room at Digby Regional High School.

As Canada prepared for a federal election, Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau squeezed in a visit to Yarmouth.

Boston resident Anne Thomas wrote a glowing letter about Digby’s scenery and suggested the town purchase the Cannon Banks property for use as a waterfront park.

Digby’s midget boys team won the Nova Scotia cross-country championship in a race run in the rain over rough terrain. Pat Theriault led the way, with a first place finish, and fellow team members were Garnet Stacey, fourth; Mike Theriault, seventh; and Greg Applejohn, tenth. In the juvenile division, David Larramore placed tenth, and in the senior open division, Ron Fraser finished fifth.

Marjory Tupper was re-elected president of the Admiral Digby Horticultural Society.

Playing at the Little Theatre was ‘True Grit’, starring John Wayne, Glen Campbell and Kim Darby.

50 years ago

Oct. 17, 1957 – There were new owners for Canadian Pacific Railway hotels in Digby, Kentville and Yarmouth. Hotel and Motel Properties Ltd., a Nova Scotia-registered company, had purchased the Pines Hotel, Cornwallis Inn and a Yarmouth hotel, which had a combined value of $3.5 million.

Among the changes proposed by the Pines Hotel’s new owner was an extended season for the golf course. As well, the new owners released a piece of land called Green Point to be used to provide a harbour for a proposed train ferry between Digby and Saint John, N.B.

The first meeting of the new Weymouth Home and School Association attracted 200 people. President was Albert Jones.

At the Capitol Theatre was the adventure movie ‘War Drums’, starring Lex Barker and Joan Taylor.

60 years ago

Oct. 9, 1947 – Digby police chief F.J. Thibault was at a backwoods hunting camp when another hunter shooting at a tin can missed and shot him in the back. The bullet entered below his shoulderblade but hit nothing vital and the police chief said the shooting was accidental.

A blaze of unknown origin destroyed one of the old Indian camps near the Pines Hotel. The camp was unoccupied at the time.

Loss of the gypsum freighter ‘Novadoc’ was an act of god, ruled the marine investigation into the March sinking earlier in the year. Twenty-four crewmembers lost their lives when the ship went down off Maine.

Groucho Marx and Carmen Miranda were lending their comedic talents to ‘Copacabana’, playing at the Capitol Theatre.