Looking back - 1978: Kinsmen playpark receiving final touches

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Published on Tuesday, August 28, 2018

Photo courtesy of the Neepawa Banner & Press Archives

Heather Welborne (left) and Nancy Collins were hard at work on the Kinsmen park in 1978!

By Cassandra Wehrhahn

Neepawa Banner & Press

110 years ago,

Tuesday,

August 25, 1908

Lt.-Col. Evans, a commander of the tenth military district, died suddenly at the Battle Creek (Mich.) sanitorium on Sunday.

The last of the Galician settlers in the Riding Mountain timber reserve have been evicted. These squatters are being paid for improvements made, and given free transportation to new homesteads elsewhere.

100 years ago,

Friday,

August 23, 1918

On Sunday evening last the Rev. John Hellyar conducted a memorial service for the late Lieut. Amos Butler, assisted by two young men of the congregation, who had been schoolmate and colleague respectively, who were able to recall encouraging items of character and conduct.

The deceased soldier was born at Arden 28 years ago, attending the Manitoba Agricultural College, and the High School at Vermillion, Alberta. While doing his homestead duties he obtained medical matriculation standing in the University of Alberta.

Joining the 5th University Co. in 1915 and going overseas in 1916, he was wounded in the Battle of Somme. After some months in English hospitals and in office work, he joined the Royal Air Force, obtaining his commission in the spring of 1918. Death on August 2nd 1918, was doubtless caused by an aeroplane accident. Mr. and Mrs. W.H. Butler have given three of their four sons to war service. Albert is overseas and Wilfred has been, although now at Tuxedo, for hospital treatment.

At the proper time the community should erect in the local cemetery a common monument to our goodly number of dead heroes.

90 years ago,

Friday,

August Friday, 1928

Col. Geo. Harvey, former U.S. minister to Britain, is dead, aged 64.

Whether most of the Polish immigrants are a decided asset to the country or not, the dozens of them who go through here every day appear to be eager to get to work. Thus on Tuesday when a number of local farmers were at the C.N.R. station seeking harvesters when the Winnipeg train pulled in, the only difficulty lay in selecting workers from the throng clamouring for jobs.

80 years ago,

Friday,

August 22, 1938

Hitler was 49 this week.

The Japanese have started a huge offensive in China to avenge recent defeats.

An attempt is being made to stamp out “cockney” accents in London schools.

Manitoba is in the throes of a mump epidemic. Brandon is the hardest hit with over 1,000 cases.

Italy and France have agreed to begin conversations immediately to re-establish their traditional friendship which was shattered by the Ethiopian war.

70 years ago,

Thursday,

August 19, 1948

The familiar threadbare phrase “lack of sufficient supply” has chalked up another score against progressive towns and communities. Neepawa council at their last regular meeting learned from communications with the Harris Construction Company that the proposed sidewalk extension and repair program would have to be shelved for this season because of the unavailability of 4,000 sacks of cement. Mayor Dr. Paul Cleave read the communication from Harris, which expressed regret that the supplies were not available for the project.

60 years ago,

Friday,

August 22, 1958

What might well have been a most unfortunate tragedy became only a close shave Wednesday, when an alert CNR fireman spotted some small children playing on the trestle bridge south of town. The brakes were applied in barely enough time to slow the train down so that the kiddies could get out of the way.

Police Chief Geoff. Pasquill Thursday issued a warning to parents to keep their children from playing on the trestle, as the danger there could be great. He said that the engineer, who made the report to him, said that he had not seen the kiddies. Had it not been for the fireman, he said, the kiddies would likely have been killed.

50 years ago,

Friday,

August 23, 1968

Huge operative-tactical missiles are set up after arriving at their destination somewhere in the Soviet Union.

More than 5,000 cases of tuberculosis were found in Canada in 1967. Of these approximately 4,700 were newly diagnosed cases and 770 were patients who had broken down for a second or third time.

40 years ago,

Thursday

August 24, 1978

Arlene Drysdale of Neepawa is one of two nurses to receive 1978 Judy Hill Memorial Scholarships.

Miss Drysdale and Diana Fenwick of Coffs Harbour, Australia, will receive $3,500 to improve their education for service in the Canadian Arctic.

The Judy Hill Memorial Fund was established to commemorate the memory of Judy Hill, a northern nurse who died while accompanying patient on a mercy flight in 1972. The scholarships are awarded annually to allow nurses to upgrade their education for service in northern Canada.

Miss Drysdale completed her nurse’s training in 1975 at the Misericordia General Hospital in Winnipeg, graduating with the highest scholastic award. She is now employed at the Selkirk General Hospital and has just completed a course in intensive care.

Born in Manitoba, Miss Drysdale plans to take a one-year post-graduate course in midwifery at the Queen Mary’s Maternity Hospital under the Greenwich and Bexley Health Authority in England.

The two nurses, chosen from about 30 applicants, will serve at nursing stations in Canada’s north after completing their training.

Heather Welborne and Nancy Collins, both of Neepawa were seeding grass on the last bare patch of ground at the Kinsmen’s playpark. As summer-employed students under the Young Canada Works Program, the two girls along with Ruth Ford, have spent their summer making the playpark a reality by constructing the equipment, laying the sod, planting grass and building benches and tables.

30 years ago,

Tuesday,

August 23, 1988

The role of today’s woman in the workplace is expanding. The Guide to Statistics Canada Data on Women reports that the number of working women jumped 42 per cent from 1976 to 1986, to just under 5 million from 3.5 million.

20 years ago,

Monday,

August 24, 1998

Neepawa Elks project chairman Elvin Toews presented Murray Gibson of the Manitoba Cancer Society with a cheque for $1,000. The money will go toward furnishings at Lennox Bell Lodge. The lodge provides housing for rural cancer patients and their families.