Looking back - 1976: A half-century of history ended with the closing of Viscount School
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- Published on Tuesday, January 26, 2016
Photo courtesy of Cecil Pittman archives. 40 Years ago, Thurs. Jan. 29, 1976: A half century of history ended when the bell rang, dismissing classes for the last time from Viscount School (Neepawa Collegiate Institute).
By Cecil Pittman
The Neepawa Press
80 years ago, Friday January 31, 1936:
Harry W. Hodkinson received from the celebrated Bullis fur farm at Stanstead, Quebec last week, a pair of blue-black mink to add to his present stock. It is Mr. Hodkinson’s aim to make his mink farm second to none and to do so has purchased the best stock procurable.
70 years ago, Thursday January 31, 1946:
District airman returns: Squadron Leader Clair S. Byram, son of Mr. and Mrs. George Byram of Carberry and formerly of Oberon, arrived home Saturday from over seas. He made the crossing on board Queen Elizabeth, which docked at New York.
Squadron Leader Byram has been a member of the RAF for the past 13 years. Prior to the war, he was stationed at various parts of England, Transjordan, Egypt and Kenya. During the war he served in England, Canada and India.
The year 1940 was spent on operational duty with bomber command. During one night bombing raid, his plane was hit by enemy fire and sank in the North Sea. The members of the crew escaped in a rubber dinghy and were eventually picked up by a trawler and returned safely to England.
60 years ago, Thursday January 26, 1956:
Although the story of Ferdinand the bull, who loved to sit and smell the flowers, may be a highly entertaining story for children, one Glenella farmer had several bruises to prove that all bulls have not inherited this trait from the placid animal so well known by the young fry.
Jack Gardiner, who farms north of the village of Glenella, was attacked by his bull when shipping some cattle with Langseth Transfer. According to reports, Mr. Gardiner was leading the animal some distance through the deep snow to the waiting truck when the animal knocked him to the ground. Picking himself up, Mr. Gardiner was knocked down a second time when Fritz Langseth and Chaz Heinz, who were assisting with the loading, drove the animal away from the area with a club.
Suffering from only a few bruises from his incident, Mr. Gardiner considers himself a very lucky man.
50 years ago, Friday January 28, 1966:
Fredrick Peter Scherpenisse, 19 year old son of Mr. and Mrs. Peter Scherpenisse of Neepawa, died Wednesday after falling 25 feet down a shaft in the International Nickel Company mine at Thompson.
RCMP said he was working on a ladder at the 1,200 foot level when he apparently lost his balance and fell.
The young miner fell six feet to the floor of the landing of which he was working and then another 19 feet to a lower landing.
The mishap occurred at 3:15 pm Wednesday. He was taken to Thompson municipal hospital, but died at 6:15 pm.
40 years ago, Thursday January 29, 1976:
A half-century of history ended Thursday when the bell rang, dismissing classes for the last time from Viscount School in Neepawa.
A mid-term break and an in-service day cancelled classes on Friday and Monday. Tuesday, classes were held in the new addition to the Neepawa Area Collegiate Institute built to house the junior high classes.
The corner stone for what was then the Neepawa Collegiate was laid July 7, 1928 by the Right Honorable Viscount Willingdon, 13th Governor-General of Canada. Viscount School housed junior and senior high school classes from the time it was open until 1956, when a new building was constructed to act as a high school.
30 years ago, Thursday January 23, 1986:
As of January 31, the doctors at the Neepawa Medical Clinic will cease to exist as a partnership.
Four of the five doctors presently practicing out of the clinic will be relocating, while the fifth is considering locating elsewhere.
“Even though the partnership is dissolving, we will still be very much working together”, commented Dr. George Ong. He added the break-up of the partnership was not the result of any animosity between the doctors.
“People make their choices on what they want to do and that’s what we’re doing.”
20 years ago, Monday January 23, 1996:
Unless small-town Manitoba learns to cooperate, many communities will be killed by competition.
That chilling message was delivered by Brandon mayor Rick Borotsik, guest speaker at the Beautiful Plains Agriculture Society’s annual meeting and volunteer appreciation night last Wednesday.
“The fact of the matter is, small-town Manitoba is dying,” said Borotsik. “We’ve all seen it.”
To hammer home the message, Borotsik said according to census figures, rural depopulation has increased 25 per cent from 1986 to 1991.
He said as well as coping with an aging population, communities are faced with “populations that aren’t quite as loyal as they were before and they’re very mobile.”
10 years ago, Monday January 30, 2006:
Neepawa’s Kaiten Critchlow won seven gold medals in the Manitoba junior short course swimming championships in Brandon last week. He captured six golds in individual events – the 100-metre back stroke and breast stroke, as well as the back stroke, free style, butterfly and breast stroke over 50-metres. He also swam the anchor leg as a Brandon Blue Fins 15-and over-team captured gold in the 200-metre free style race. Critchlow, a grade 12 student at Neepawa Collegiate, established personal best times with his efforts in the 50-metre back stroke (35.24 seconds), butterfly (33.9) and breast stroke (39.6). He has been a member of the Blue Fins club since September.
