Photo supplied.
Diann Corfe holds a framed photo of her younger self at Frontier Days in the early 1970s.
Diann Corfe, president of Branch 402, Royal Canadian Legion, kicked off the Historical Society’s March event held Friday, March 22 in the Legion Hall, with some colourful and entertaining memories of Frontier Days, a special event held in the early part of the 1970s in downtown Millbrook. Dr. Van Loon entertained a spellbound crowd of 50 with the story of his arrival in town and of how the Millbrook Medical Centre came to be, and former fire chief Ted Buck described the explosion event on Distillery Street.
Other tales that came to light were about the beginnings of the Millbrook Highlighter, precursor to The Times, with a nod to Jim Chaplin who was responsible for this high school /community initiative that gave the area its own newspaper again after The Reporter folded. Copies of some of those early Highlighters, on display for the evening’s event, sparked more stories including early work on what would become the Millbrook Valley Trails system, the first Save Needler’s Mill campaign, and memories of peace efforts in reaction to US president Ronald Reagan’s strategic defence initiative known as Star Wars, that was seen as a potential nuclear threat. Harald Glass paid tribute to the memory of Harry Williams, and Joanne Rowland recalled when it became necessary to ban the sale of eggs at the IGA in the days before rowdy Hallowe’en nights. History is never dull!
By Celia Hunter
