Looking Back: 24-hour Electrical Service
With David McIver
100 years ago - Oct. 15, 1928
As soon as workers could install new air pressure tanks for starting at the power plant, Rosetown was to have 24-hour electrical service.
The town council resolved to act after receiving complaints from harvesters and others “fleeced out of their hard-earned coin” by poker-playing gamblers.
80 years ago - Oct. 11, 1945
A co-op guild was formed here on Oct. 5 with officers Blanche Moxley, Mrs. J. Sladek, Mrs. R. Morris, Eva Paull, Mrs. R. Clarke and Margaret Macey. Its aim was to interest, help and promote leadership among young people. It was the 22nd co-op guild in Saskatchewan.
Lieut. M. R. Rohne of Rosetown had been mentioned in dispatches. Rohne had enlisted in the 67th Light Anti-Aircraft Battery here and was in “the thick of the fighting” from France to the Netherlands.
Cpt. R. J. Low and Gnr. Ellis Moffat returned from overseas. Low, of the Saskatoon Light Infantry, had been in Africa, Sicily, the Italian mainland and France before finishing in the Netherlands. Moffat, who’d enlisted in the 67th L.A.A., saw action in France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany.
70 years ago - Oct. 13, 1955
Rosetown Fire Chief Doug Wilson “arranged a little drama” to find out how well the new telephone alarm system worked and how quickly the old public school could be evacuated under realistic fire conditions.
At 2 p.m. that day, Fire Commissioner Joe Bentham and the caretaker lit a smudge in the school basement. Mrs. Hintze discovered the smoke before it had spread much. The old public school emptied in 51 seconds - “which is amazing” for the children’s ages - and the other public school in 21 seconds. “The teachers are to be congratulated.”
The new alarm system didn’t work so well. The small fire unit with three men got there in six minutes. The big pumper took nine minutes. Bentham meant to ask that the old alarm system be used until the town obtained a proper fire siren.
50 years ago - Oct. 15, 1975
Byron McCrimmon had stepped down as the Redwings coach, said the club’s new president, Marguerite Brookbank. Leigh Bannister and assistants Ron Willy and Jim Foster were to coach the team and Dennis Sabo would be manager, Brookbank said. A letter from Poland addressed to “Rosetown Redwing Hockey Sport Club, Rosetown, Canada” got here, said Brookbank. Chester and Lilly Dorotkiewicz translated it from Polish. The writer had requested a Redwing souvenir.
Sports editor Tom Miskell had said he hadn’t lost a ball to gopher and badger holes at the Coteau Beach Golf Course, said R. G. Grimes of Dinsmore in a letter. That’s because he never hit it far enough to lose it, said Grimes who also thanked Miskell for helping fill in some of the badger holes.
Recent births included a son to each of Mr. and Mrs. Dale Inverarity of Sovereign and Mr. and Mrs. Robert Dipple of Stranraer and daughter Krista Leigh to Mr. and Mrs. Doug Barker (née Brenda Klassen) of Calgary.
30 years ago - Oct. 10, 1995
Western Sales (1986) Ltd. was among the top 100 Saskatchewan companies, 70th in a list published by the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix. A photo showed owners Grant Henderson, Grant McGrath and Doug Slimmon.
20 years ago - Oct. 11, 2005
After years of trying, Marlene Leith had finally got an Alzheimer’s support group started here, she said. Leith was the volunteer facilitator for the group and the program director at Wheatbelt Centennial Lodge.