35 years ago: Ottawa backs twice-daily ferry service

Digby Baptist Church was filled for a special Remembrance Day service that was also broadcast live on radio station CKDY. Following the service, veterans and cadets paraded to the town cenotaph where Legion branch president Ralph Wright was in charge of the service.

Remembrance services were also held in Barton, Little River, Bear River and Weymouth.

Four men entered their names to contest the vacant seat on town council. The four were Patrick Comeau, Howard Cottreau, John E. Keen and Frank Mackintosh.

Digby County Federation of Agriculture passed a resolution asking the provincial government to pay a grain-growing subsidy either by the bushel or the ton.

At the Little Cinema was the Disney movie ‘The World’s Greatest Athlete’, with stars Jan-Michael Vincent and Tim Conway.

50 years ago

Nov. 13, 1958 – At Little River the Nova Scotia Mink Breeders Association was holding its best show ever, according to president Austin Mullen of Havelock. There were 11 different classes, with 488 mink entered by 27 exhibitors.

Mullen said mink ranching was a natural industry for Nova Scotia because it used waste products from the fishing industry and was a source of ‘new money’ for the province because its main markets were in Montreal and Ontario.

Digby Courier editor Edith Wallis was re-elected president of the Nova Scotia Weekly Newspapers Association at its annual convention. Guest speaker was Jack Brayley of Canadian Press, who was also commentator on the Neighborly News radio program. Brayley praised the leadership of weekly newspapers, and singled out the Springhill Record for maintaining faith in the town while others talked gloom and doom.

More than 1,500 hogsheads of herring—about 1.5 million pounds—was taken in the previous week in St. Mary’s Bay by seiners, mostly from New Brunswick. The catch was completely ruining the bay’s weir fishery, complained local fishermen.

Hotel Champlain was advertising a Sunday special dinner of ‘southern fried chicken with French fried potatoes’ for $1.85.

The Bowery Boys, with Leo Gorsey and Hunts Hall, were starring in ‘Dig That Uranium’, the movie playing at the Capitol Theatre.

60 years ago

Nov. 11, 1948 – Veteran municipal councillor Clarence Cornwell of Rossway died in Digby General Hospital. Born in Waterford in 1873, four years before Confederation, he was first elected for Rossway in 1918 and except for two three-year terms served until the time of his death.

A service of ‘historic significance’ was held in Roxville when Rev. E.C. Churchill duly organized the community’s Baptist Church.

Grade 12 student Bill Hutchinson was elected president of the student council at Digby Rural High School. Also on the executive was treasurer Richard Levy.

Nov. 11 also marked the official opening of t he new Digby Rural High School, the first in the province designed for both rural and urban students.

For the Armistice Day parade, veterans were asked to fall in at the Maiden Lane School.

At the Capitol, the movie was the classic ‘Key Largo’, starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall.