Hugh Townsend, Author at The Pictou Advocate

When Charlottetown had our attention

November 25, 2020November 24, 2020Hugh Townsend

It seems like a generation ago. Perhaps more like two generations, in fact. Ever think of those times? There were no cell phones, no smart phones, no email or Facebook. There were no Tim Hortons or McDonalds on every street corner, no box stores as unbearably huge as Costco and IKEA. There weren’t dozens of...

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Hockey mishap didn’t stop Kevin Murphy

November 18, 2020November 18, 2020Hugh Townsend

When Kevin Murphy was elected to the Nova Scotia House of Assembly for the Eastern Shore riding in the 2013 provincial election, he made a comment that really caught my attention. Anybody, he said from his wheelchair, can overcome physical disabilities “to achieve anything at all.” He was speaking from personal knowledge. That observation came...

So many of us have lost a special friend

November 13, 2020November 13, 2020Hugh Townsend

Muhammad Ali, the greatest of them all, once said, “If you haven’t learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven’t learned anything.” Right on, Champ. Martin Luther King, Jr. put it this way: “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” Is there anything in...

Safety, above all is key in our arenas

November 4, 2020November 4, 2020Hugh Townsend

The invasion of COVID-19 has been tough for all of us. As the virus interrupted our lives in just about everything we do, we’ve struggled to get through a very unusual period. We stayed the blazes home, we distanced ourselves from friends and everybody else, we wore masks, we avoided our favourite restaurants, we found...

It’s not possible for everyone to be first

October 29, 2020October 29, 2020Hugh Townsend

The Sunday morning sermon was a game winner. Like many of the congregants of Woodlawn United Church in Dartmouth, rather than sitting in a pew wearing a mask, I was at home watching the live virtual service on my iPad. That’s a religious exercise seven months into COVID-19. The guest preacher was Padre Roland Murray,...

What Pictou County was like in 1954

October 22, 2020October 22, 2020Hugh Townsend

I was a pretty excited teenager when the Evening News arrived at our home in New Glasgow on Oct. 21, 1954. Sixty-six years ago today. I flipped to the sports section and there, in front of my eyes, was a story about a high school rugby game the previous day between New Glasgow and Stellarton....

The evening Leo Parent outpitched Drabowsky

October 15, 2020October 15, 2020Hugh Townsend

I was so fortunate, in the early years of my life, to spend nine summers watching the very best baseball ever played in Nova Scotia. In my early teens, sitting in the stands, I saw Pictou County’s beloved Stellarton Albions winning three consecutive Halifax and District Baseball League championships, a feat never matched by any...

Leafs once again turn to Antigonish

October 7, 2020October 7, 2020Hugh Townsend

I’ve been told, on more than one occasion, that I live the words of the late Prince Edward Island singer-songwriter Gene MacLellan in his hit Turn Back the Pages of Time. Maybe the interpretation does fit. I certainly believe the old saying that, the older you get, the more your mind turns back the calendar....

A quality person like his mom and dad

September 23, 2020September 23, 2020Hugh Townsend

If you were to ask me about Dallas Stars interim head coach Rick Bowness, the first pronouncement I’d make is that he’s a quality person just like his mom and dad before him. In my mind, they’ve been a sports-loving family I’ve admired for a very long time. They don’t come much finer. And it’s...

Steve Goodwin is an Advocate asset

September 16, 2020September 15, 2020Hugh Townsend

I never forget the details of how the middle part of October unfolded in 2014. My column was about Steve Goodwin, the long-time Advocate reporter who was being inducted into the media section of the Pictou County Sports Heritage Hall of Fame that weekend. It was my intention to attend the ceremonies in Westville that...

Author: Hugh Townsend