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Lake Flashback: A really full back-to-school pack of items from years past this week

Some things never change while others are strictly of the past
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Ten-year-old Aidan Sidhu prepares to head out on the Terry Fox Run in September 2009. (Lake Cowichan Gazette)

Welcome to Lake Flashback. Reporter Lexi Bainas has been combing through old newspapers with the assistance of the Kaatza Station Museum and Archives so we can jog your memory, give you that nostalgic feeling, or just a chuckle, as we take a look at what was making headlines this week around Cowichan Lake in years gone by.

This week around the Cowichan Lake area…

10 years ago:

Showing that a tune that’s been whistled recently at Lake Cowichan is just a remix from years ago, we read in the Sept. 16, 2009 edition of the Lake Cowichan Gazette that “Terry Fox Run back, but too few to take part”.

Yes, it’s an old story, after all.

“The Terry Fox Run returned to Lake Cowichan on Sunday, but not without the efforts of two Duncan residents. Sam Brown and Patrick Sumner took up the challenge put out by the Terry Fox Foundation looking for someone to organize the event, which wasn’t held [last year] in Lake Cowichan for the first time in recent memory, although the schools held Terry Fox Runs.”

Cowichan Lake Community Services had organized the Terry Fox Run for years, but with their tighter budget and interest dwindling the organization decided to drop it.

Interest wasn’t much greater on Sunday, though, with just 11 people taking part.

“It is disappointing,” said Brown. “We came to town a few times to pass out posters trying to create some interest, but not too many people seemed to be interested.”

Although Brown and Sumner aren’t sure whether they’ll be in Duncan at this time next year, they said if they are they might try to do it again.

Sunday’s Terry Fox Run included some of the diehards, such as runners Kelly Bergstrom, John McCormick and Carolyn Graham, as well as walker Amanda Sawatzky and her five-year-old son Alex.

25 years ago:

The Lake News’ front page on Wednesday, Sept. 14, 1994 featured four front page stories. Let’s look at them all.

First, there’s “Kiwanis garage sale is bumped to 17th”.

It seems the giant sale, “one of the most eagerly awaited events of the year,” would be not be held Sept. 24 after all.

“It will jam both floors of Centennial Hall with bargains at cut rates…The items for sale are donated and picked up by the Kiwanis throughout the year…

“We have more this year than ever before,” Harry Whiskin told The Lake News. “We have just about everything, I guess.’”

The next story was: “Should know today if local forest workers will strike”.

Rod Thompson, business manager at IWA Local 1-80, said, “Nothing has been happening locally. People have been continuing to work. We should have a conclusion within two or three days, either a settlement or strike.”

Then, there’s “How will Lake Cowichan fit in the new developments in health care?”

It was all about keeping up.

Mayor Earle Darling, who chaired last Wednesday’s meeting, Closer to Home: New Directions in Health Care, which attracted about a dozen people, said Lake Cowichan council would discuss how the village should proceed.

The choice for Lake Cowichan is to be an independent group or join a larger council, which includes Duncan, Ladysmith, and other areas in the Cowichan Valley.

Finally, there was a feature item by Ron Kenyon on artist Sonia Galbraith, who was, at that time, making “beautiful things from clay” before turning to sculpturing stone.

40 years ago:

“Seniors’ home gets gov’t go-ahead: rent subsidies may be out of reach for most” said the headline on the front page of the Sept. 12, 1979 edition of The Lake News.

“A local group seeking to build the senior citizens’ home has been given the green light but not without a cautionary note delivered in a sometimes stormy atmosphere at a meeting here.”

The Cowichan Lake Senior Citizens’ Housing Society was told last Thursday that its plans fell within guidelines set by the province, but an official of the provincial housing ministry questioned whether most projected occupants would be able to get rental subsidies.

Pat Grove, assistant regional manager of the ministry of lands, parks, and housing…indicated that incomes of many seniors here — based on discussions held with project organizers — would be too high to get monthly assistance. But that wouldn’t stop the project from getting cabinet approval as long as other facets of the proposal were acceptable, she said.

Grove faced a flurry of hostile questioning from some of the people at the meeting. Most of those there were representatives of the three service clubs which comprise the society — the Kiwanis, Lions, and Kinsmen. Also in attendance was MP Don Taylor.

Some of the members of the Society appeared to be taking a defensive stance, almost as if fearing a provincial government wrench was poised to be thrown into the works.

At one point, Kinsman Dick Nimmo described government involvement up to this stage as “hogwash and political double speak”.

Society chairman George Webster showed suspicion of future government intervention.

Grove at one point expressed exasperation with what she described as “a problem of trust.”