Some years ago an elderly Renfrew man came to see me with a box full of all the Renfrew Advance weekly newspapers from 1967 -–the Centennial Year. He had saved them up and wanted me to have them as he knew I was a history buff. They have been a real treasure — full of local news and photos. I’ve read through them a few times and in recent weeks I have been going through the May, June and July issues.
Front page of The Renfrew Advance May 11, 1967 headline: Farmers meet to plan March: It read as follows: “An organizational meeting to arrange the forthcoming farmer march to Ottawa was held on May 3, 1967 in Cobden. Most county farm organizations were represented —Renfrew County Federation of Agriculture, Renfrew County Farmers Union, Renfrew County Milk Committee and Renfrew County Beef Improvement. All were united to help support this march to Ottawa. The meeting felt that the county could likely get 500 farmers to join the march.
Both Ontario and Quebec farmers are organizing this march on May 24. The Brief that will be presented will be dealing with all aspects of agriculture –- pork, beef, cash crops, but the main emphasis will be on milk.
Several captains were nominated from each of the townships in the county and will be contacting all farmers. The co-ordinator for the march is Delmer Bennett of Foresters Falls. Delmer said “It is a busy time of year, but poor business if you could not take off a day to help better your income. If it was raining you wouldn’t be on the land anyway.”
The June 1, 1967 issue of The Renfrew Advance has a photo on the front page of Canada’s Agriculture Minister Joe Greene addressing thousands of militant farmers during the march on Parliament Hill. The caption said Joe Greene had the biggest audience of his political career.
The front page of July 20, 1967 headline reads: ARDA program explained to Kiwanis. The article says Wil Hermans, Rural Development officer for ARDA in Renfrew County outlined some of the existing projects under the Agricultural and Rural Development Act to the Kiwanis Club. He said the biggest problem now facing ARDA is the low income and productivity in farming. Striving for a solution to this problem ARDA can now offer financial assistance by buying small, unsuccessful farms and reselling them at attractive terms to those farmers wishing to expand. Hermans said 40 to 50 percent of the farms in Renfrew County had a net income of less than $1,200 last year. Another phase of the ARDA program is the re-education or retraining of farmers.
On the top of the front page of the June 1, 1967 issue is a photo of a young Dave Little. The 28-year-old graduate of the Ag College in Guelph was appointed Associate Agricultural Representative in Renfrew County, effective June 1. Dave became Ag Rep when Frank Dench retired.
Is it politically correct to say Eskimo these days? The headline on the same front page reads: “Eskimo girl visits at Glasgow Station” and has a photo of her. She is from Baffin Island, NWT.
Remember the Wringer Washers that women used to wash the family laundry?
McPhail Hardware in Renfrew ran large ads in the paper advertising the machines. They are priced from $129.95 — less your trade-in.
Sidney’s Discount in Renfrew ran an ad each week. Cigarettes were 50-cents for the large pkg and 40-cents for the small pks. $3.74 a carton. There was no HST tacked onto the smokes back then.
Turkeys were selling in the stores for 39 to 43-cents/lb. Blade roast was 55-cents/lb. T-bone steak 89-cents/lb. Ground beef 49-cents/lb. Bananas 12-cents/lb. N.B. potatoes 50 lb bag for $1.29
Opeongo High School was being built at a cost of $2.9 million.
Playing at the O’Brien Theatre in Renfrew was David Lean’s film Doctor Zhivago. Admission was $1.25 for children and students. Adults $1.50. Friday and Saturday all seats $2.00.
Those are just some of the interesting items I gleaned from the pages of The Renfrew Advance.
