Each week, the Gazette looks back on stories from the past. Here is what happened this week, by year…

1923

• It is safe to say that Picton Motor Show now under way in the Armouries equals to surpasses any motor show ever put on in a town of this size. The large capacity of the floor of the Armouries is completely filled by over three dozen cars ranging in price from several thousands to a few hundreds of dollars. All that is new in the cars handled by local dollars is on display. The total selling price of the exhibits approximates $70,000.
• Grand Orange Lodge for Ontario East opened its sessions in Picton Parish House with fully 400 in attendance. Delegates were present from practically every primary lodge in the Eastern Ontario Jurisdiction.
• Over forty members were in attendance at a luncheon of the Board of Trade Club. The usual address was dispensed with on this occasion. The program included selections by the Orpheus Quartile, solos by Messrs. A. E. Ward and Arthur Welbanks, and short addresses by Messrs. Jas. H. Gillespie, E. C. Garbutt and H. S. Miller.

1943

• Works and Buildings won the InterSection Hockey League championship at the R.A.F. Station. In the finals, they disposed of Ground Instruction School in two straight games. Works and Buildings finished third in the regular league games, but showed superiority in the play-offs.
• A corvette, which will shortly go on active service with the navy, was recently launched at the plant of the Kingston Shipbuilding Company after the ice on the slip was broken. The ice in some places was two feet thick.
• Mrs. Williams Marsh (nee Marjorie Watson), daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William Watson, Union Street, Picton, is doing her share to help win this war. Mrs. Marsh lives in Peterborough where her husband is in the army.

1973

• Skylight Homes Ltd. President John E. Grimba told The Gazette that the proposed Picton operations are likely to start in the latter half of April. He said he now has written confirmation that the necessary plastic-based liquid to make the rigid foam spray homes will be in supply by that time and this is the only holdup now on the start of production.
• Sophiasburgh Township this week moved in on trailer camp operations with the passing of a special bylaw at a meeting of Township Council. Purposed of the bylaw is “to regulate and govern the operation of trailer camps and tourist camps and to designate areas of land for use of such camps and to prohibit use of other lands for such purposes.”
• The County Fair at Picton promises to be ‘new’ in a number of ways. A new midway, Happy Land Shows, comes highly recommended with a variety of good rides. While it is not possible to revive the parade of hundreds of school children, a parade is planned to precede the official opening, a horse show and a stage show in front of the grandstand.

1983

• Every morning in Picton between the hours of five and eight, thousands of people cast off their covers and head for the bathroom. Sleepy eyed, they wash their faces and hands, have a shower and use the toilet. And a needle at the town’s sewage treatment plant that records water volumes in red ink on a circular shirt jumps from about 800,000 gallons to over one million.
• For the past decade Mrs. Ruth Thompson of Wellington, who is not 83, has given unstintingly of her time and energy to school children and for this, has been nominated for the Fred L. Bartlett Memorial Award. When most people are in the midst of a quiet, comfortable retirement this women decided her interest in the welfare and development of children must continue.
• Open air burning without a fire permit can be a costly business as one Ameliasburgh township resident learned recently. Deputy Fire Chief Roger Flower told The Gazette a call to extinguish a fire was made and when firemen arrived and put out the blaze it was learned the resident had been burning brush without a permit.