Long before Terry Burgess began a lengthy political career as a director with the Regional District of Fraser Fort George, he was blowing things up in high school.
His lab experiment with buddies Herb Assman and Bobby Douglas was front page news 70 years ago this week, in the March 11, 1954, edition of the Citizen.
‘Accidental ‘H-Bomb’ Cuts Students Here,’ the headline read.
“For an exciting split-second yesterday, three Grade 11 students thought they might have unearthed the secret of the hydrogen bomb in a laboratory of Prince George Junior-Senior High School,” the story read.
“The trio was at work in the school’s laboratory conducting an experiment involving the generation of hydrogen.
“Suddenly a load explosion rocked the lab and the boys felt themselves being struck by flying glass.
“All three received minor cuts from the shattering laboratory equipment.”
Assman needed a couple of stiches for the cuts in his arms, the story added.
Supervising Principal Jack Beech told the Citizen that in his 20 years of teaching, “he had never known that particular experiment to produce an explosion.”
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After locating Kathy Hart 50 years after she appeared on the front page of the Citizen, we’re now looking for Leslie Clarke, who was on the front page of the March 12, 1964 edition, of the Citizen. The students of Connaught Junior Secondary School were selling pens for 50 cents each over a two-week period to raise funds for disabled kids.
Leslie, are you out there? We’d love to hear from you!
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Five U.S. T-28 Trojan navy trainers were parked on the tarmac at the Prince George Airport this week 40 years ago, waiting for better weather to continue their journey north to serve as bird dog planes for the Alaskan Forest Service.
The planes had previously seen duty in the Korean War, the caption below the front-page photo in the March 13, 1984, edition of the Citizen explained.
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Ok, this is creepy.
As I was working on this week’s Throwback Thursday, I had Apple Music playing “Neil Godbout’s station,” meaning it was randomly picking songs from my library or picking stuff I might like that I hadn’t played before.
A few minutes before I got to the March 14, 1994, edition of the Citizen, it played High Hopes, the beautiful song that closes Pink Floyd’s 1994 album The Division Bell.
On the front page of the Citizen 30 years ago? A story and a photo of Pink Floyd fans in Prince George camped out overnight at Studio 2880 hoping to buy tickets for the Floyd’s upcoming tour stop at BC Place in Vancouver.
Neal Hagreen, Matt Garlick and Adam Craddock were quoted in the story.
Gents, are you out there? How was the show?
Neil Godbout is a member of the Prince George Heritage Commission.
