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Looking Back: A ban on early holly?

This community’s history, as recorded in the pages of the Langley Advance.
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Eighty Years Ago

April 7, 1938

• Popularity of the Saturday night shows at the Langley theatre prompted Police Chief Macklin to order manager J. Gibson to stop selling tickets for The Hurricane. Appeals were made for patrons to attend the Friday night showing.

• Tenders awarded to supply firewood to local schools ranged from $1.39 per cord at County Line to $2.75 at the high school.

Seventy Years Ago

April 8, 1948

• Council turned down a request for a 40-hour week for its employees. It would have been a reduction from 44 hours per week. Labourers’ wages remained at 72 cents per hour.

• Demands for service outstripped supply, B.V. Telephone Co. told the Fort Langley Board of Trade in response to complaints about service levels. Meanwhile, Glen Valley residents wanted to be switched from the Aldergrove to the Langley Prairie exchange.

Sixty Years Ago

April 10, 1958

• The largest flow of springs south of Grade Crescent was measured at 23 gallons per minute, as engineers continued their search for an adequate water supply for Langley City.

• A Women’s Institute conference in Fort Langley wanted to legislate a specific date to start Christmas activities. Many stores, they felt, might start their Christmas shopping campaigns too early.

Fifty Years Ago

April 11, 1968

• Township council members had trouble adjusting to their new titles: Reeve Bill Poppy was now a “mayor” and the councillors had become “aldermen.”

• Fuller Lane, at the rear of businesses on the south side of Fraser Highway in downtown Langley City was to be posted as a one-way street.

• The Old Yale Road Bridge was about to open.

Forty Years Ago

April 12, 1978

• Provincial funding cut in half an anticipated school tax increase.

• Collaboration on a parade float between Langley City and Township came in under both their budgets.

Thirty Years Ago

April 6, 1988

• An Aldergrove teen was charged with murder in the death of a 48-year-old woman whose body had been found in her south Aldergrove home.

• A $70,000 house fire left a family of nine homeless.

Twenty Years Ago

April 10, 1998

• Staff at a Langley City night club raised the alarm of a fire in a nearby business. Apartment dwellers above the business were safely evacuated. The fire was believed to have been arson.

• Local auxiliary police officers joined colleagues and MLAs across the province in outrage. B.C.’s Attorney General had suspended their right to arm themselves while performing their duties.

• An apparent attempt at a rip-off ended up leading local police to one of Langley’s biggest pot seizures ever.

• After furious debate, Township council voted to put plans for a 208th Street freeway overpass on public display.



Matthew Claxton

About the Author: Matthew Claxton

Raised in Langley, as a journalist today I focus on local politics, crime and homelessness.
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