1958 Was Very Weird In Cobourg

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Richard May was 63 years old. So what is the deal here? Was he trying to steal eggs? Was he unemployed and starving? Was it just to find a place to sleep? This is all that the Cobourg Sentinel-Star published on the issue. It's 1958 and there's a hen house in Cobourg. Was it the rooster that ratted out Mr May to Ms McCool. But get a load of the sentence: 30 days in the cooler for entering a hen house without permission.

Now this is an interesting story.

Fairfax M. Gifford, touted as being a "good shot" generously provided from his own gun collection a Riot Gun to the Cobourg Police Dept. Why? Because he "felt it was a good idea for the police to have a riot gun."

Town Councillor, Tom Jones, asks the most pertinent question of all, "Why? What is it for?"

The Mayor of the day quickly replied, "In case of emergency."

[Well, gosh, one can never know when Cobourg citizens might rise up in revolution and run amok, setting fire to businesses, overturning cars, that sort of thing]

Deputy-Reeve Erskine, as chair of the Police Committee and ever helpful to explain things, told the Town Council, "A riot gun is a sawed off shotgun."

The Mayor was quick to correct this misapprehension, exclaiming, "Not this one. It's got a long barrel, but it has a pump action."

So where is the gun now? That was 51 years ago and there have not been any recorded riots in Cobourg, a drunken brawl now and then, but a riot? C'mon.

Hi, my name's Wally Keeler. I'd like a Junkyard Licence.

You'll have to take a test.

What, like a driver's licence?

Yes. You need to know your junk.

How about junk laws?

You just failed Mr Keeler.

WARNING: If you're hitching, it is legal to be a stand-up guy about it. If you lay down on the job to take a rest it'll cost ya. Just ask James A. Harris, who did time in the local gaol. Tsk, Tsk. Lesson learned.

Victoria Park was a cow pasture. Now we know why those elm trees grew so magnificently.