10 years ago — Dec. 19, 2003
(As reported in the Bangor Daily News)
BANGOR — Here’s what you will see onstage at Penobscot Theatre Company’s production of “A Christmas Carol” — Ebenezer Scrooge growling his way through London. Tiny Tim riding stop Bob Cratchit’s shoulder.
Backstage is another story. Before the show started, actors bumped around congenially, wishing each other a good show, adjusting hats and stoles. and clapping cast members on the back. Then the stage manager called, “Five minutes!” and silence and stillness fell over the 20 or so people backstage, all of them dressed in Victorian clothing.
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HAMPDEN — When Eastern Maine Indoor Track League season opens, fans of Brewer High School and Hampden Academy will not see two of the more familiar faced in the league coaching their respective teams.
Dick Balentine replaces Dave King on the Broncos’ side and Matt Collins takes over for Dave Jeffrey for the Brewer boys. King had coached for nearly three decades and Jeffrey had been with Brewer since 1979.
25 years ago — Dec. 19, 1988
BANGOR — Wayne Lawton of Bangor Daily News Charities Inc. presented a check in the amount of $1,000 to Project D.A.R.E., Drug Abuse Resistance Education, represented by Bangor Police Officer Daniel Frazzell. The 17-week course will be taught to fifth-graders in the Bangor school system after the first of next year.
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BREWER — Winners of the Holiday Highlights home and business Christmas decorating contest were Brian Higgins, 88 North Main St., first place; Dick and Mary Ellen Pooler, 17 Floyd St., second place; Pauline Barbin, 5 Greenwood St., third place.
Twin City Florist was the winner in the business category.
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BANGOR — The Bangor Historical Society has been awarded a grant of $1,631 from the Maine Arts Commission to provide care and storage for a collection of historical photographs and prints.
Executive Director Diane Vatne and Curtator Abigail Ewing Zelz secured the grant, which included funds for the purchase of a specially designed metal cabinet for the Society’s print collection. Previously, many of these prints were in their original frames with potenially damaging wooden backs.
The grant also provided funds for a collection of more than 3,000 photographs of Bangor homes and businesses taken in the 1930s by amateurs in the employ of the Works Progress Administration. The photographs were used in the office of the city assessor until 1985 in connection with property evaluation. In August 1985, James Phillips, then city assessor turned the photographs over to the Bangor Historical Society.
50 years ago — Dec. 19, 1963
BANGOR — The crew of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Mackinac, now on duty at Ocean Station Charlie, off Iceland, have sent 54 Christmas messages to their families in the States through the Military Affiliate Radio System, or MARS, at Dow Air Force Base.
The only means the vessel has of communicating with the world is through a crew member who is an amateur radio operator. He has been allowed to send these holiday messages to Dow’s MARS, which is in the charge of Sgt. Donald L. Harris. Harris in turn has given the messages to local amateur radio operators who are relaying them through the amateur system of this country to relatives in some 15 states, including California.
The Bangor amateurs participating in the program are James F. O’Connor, A-1c Harold Carter and T-Sgt. John O’Brien.
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BANGOR — Professor David B. Dommelen of the University of Maine faculty told members of the Bangor Art Society that an art society should be interested in all types of art, not just paintings.
Meeting at the Bangor Daily News auditorium the group heard Van Dommelen urge that an art society stimulate art in the schools and in the home and also take an interest in the architecture of the community. He felt that in the not there should be good paintings, good pottery and furniture which has artistic style.
Van Dommelen, who teaches interior design and fabric design at the university, spoke in particular of his work in creating wall hangings.
100 years ago — Dec. 19, 1913
BANGOR — The meeting of the Maine State Grange has at this session taken a position squarely opposed to the expenditure of the state’s $2 million of road money on the construction of trunk lines of the highway, sometimes called “scenic highways.”
Maine State Grange members also affirmed their belief that full justice cannot ever be obtained in Maine until women have been given the right of the ballot. The mother, according to the Grange resolution, should have the right vote in order to protect her children, and tax-paying women ought to have the right to vote in order to protect her property.
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BREWER — The city teams are busy these pleasant days hauling sand for use on icy sidewalks this winter. The sand is being deposited at the shed in the rear of the city stables in South Brewer.
The large sprinkler tank which was located on the lot owned by O.H Nickerson near the Central Fire Station in Parker Street has been removed. It is planned to remove all such tanks and replace them with standpipes similar to those already installed.