Nothing ever really changes – just the cast of characters.

A downtown neighbour brought in a copy of the August 8, 1924, Globe he’d found. With that out-of-control oil well continuing to dump oil into the Gulf of Mexico, he thought it interesting to read about a Bruce County oil well.

The story, headlined, Heavy flow of oil near Southampton, reads as follows: A heavy flow of oil is reported to have been struck at the oil well at Spry on the Bruce Peninsula, which is being operated by the Mulberry Creek Oil Company. The force is said to have driven the drill out of the well. The president of the company, E.N. Shaw of Chicago, is coming to Southampton along with other officials to investigate the proposal of building a refining plant in Southampton.

Glad that didn’t pan out.

A front page story outlined how liquor is being smuggled from the United States into the dry provinces of Canada. A government official said it was so bad that the next logical step would likely be a pipeline. Drugs, textiles and tobacco were also being smuggled into the country.

Eighty-five years later and tobacco is still being smuggled into Canada. Drugs now go  both ways across the border.

Another story from 1924, with the following headline, Dies of starvation working way home, says a Port Elgin man, Earl Hendry, had been working in a B.C. lumber camp. He was discharged and, without money, he started to walk and work his way back home to Port Elgin. He collapsed from illness in Vibank, Saskatchewan and taken to hospital in Regina where he died.

There are many interesting stories – from a bank manager who poisoned himself after being arrested to accidents to political scandal.

There is even an ad in the paper for those troubled with itchy pimples. The cure back in 1924 was Cuticura Soap and Ointment. I guess it never caught on.

Life was no different from today.

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Talk about waving the red flag…

Ontario’s chief medical officer of health, after examining scientific papers and reports on wind turbines from a number of sources, says wind turbines don’t make people sick.

There are a few people around here who would beg to differ.