Looking back at Digby County history
the Soviet Union. “We suddenly realized that, at least in certain fields, the USSR had outdistanced the western world,” Nowlan said.
A major project from a neighbouring county was in the news. Tenders for a causeway across the Annapolis River at Granville Ferry were scheduled to close Jan. 28. From the Digby Courier: “The new causeway will eliminate the need for the present system of dykes along the Annapolis River and will also replace the existing bridge which spans the river at Granville Ferry. It is understood the new causeway will be two years in building.”
The Digby Ravens hockey team was getting ready to play its first game of the new year, a Friday night exhibition match at the Digby Forum against the HMCS Cornwallis Cougars of the armed forces league. “The (Digby) team this year is entirely ‘home brew,’” said a local newspaper item. The Ravens were coached by Bob Morgan, who also was playing, and Sonny VanTassel was the manager. Discussions were ongoing regarding the team’s schedule in the western valley league.
It had been an unseasonably mild Christmas and it looked like the above-normal temperatures might continue for a bit. Perhaps particularly disappointed about the lack of snow, the newspaper noted, “were those youngsters who received sleds, toboggans and the like from Santa. Weather prospects for these people do not yet seem too promising.”
Co-operation – the need for it and the benefits of it – was the theme of Premier Robert Stanfield’s New Year’s message for 1958. “Co-operation among ourselves will make Nova Scotia strong and prosperous,” the premier said, adding that a similar approach would pay dividends at the regional and national level too. “May the year 1958 see us all working together in our varied ways to bring prosperity to ourselves and our fellows.”
Three-and-a-half years or so after her death, Maud Lewis was in the news, with an event dedicated to her to be held in New Brunswick. The Sackville Art Association was planning to hold a special evening at the Owens Art Gallery at Mount Allison University as a tribute to the work of Lewis, the renowned folk artist who had died in the summer of 1970 at the age of 67. The event was scheduled for March 1.
The new mayor of Digby, Willard Kinney, assumed office. He had been elected in fall-of-1973 civic election. At the first town council session of 1974, Kinney paid tribute to his predecessor, Glen Smith, and also complimented retiring councillor Ina Dillon. Paul Winchester was named the town’s deputy mayor.
In North Range, a truck became uncoupled from its trailer and careened into the ditch, snapping off a telephone pole and disrupting phone service.
There were no injuries and little damage to the vehicle, but it was enough to cause, as the Courier put it, a “small commotion ... in the usually quiet village of North Range.”
Penny Gott of Smith’s Cove, a former Digby municipal councillor and a member of the board of Tideview Terrace – the longterm care facility that recently had opened in Digby – was named chair of a new auxiliary. It was hoped the group would serve not only Tideview Terrace but also the elderly in the broader community.
The Smith Cove’s fire company met to discuss a number of issues and to elect its officers for 1974. Bud Thompson would be fire chief for the coming year and Rae McCleave was deputy fire chief.
Tuesday night television programs in 1974 included (on CBC) Mary Tyler Moore, Police Story, Front Page Challenge and (on CTV) Sanford and Son, The Rookies, Marcus Welby, Kojak.