YESTERDAY …
10 years ago — July 23, 2005
(As reported in the Bangor Daily News)
HAMPDEN — In a family homecoming of sorts, a local construction firm has acquired a larger company with a similar name that was founded in Maine 79 years ago.
Sargent and Sargent, a company headed up by Herb R. Sargent and located on Main Road in Hampden bought H.E. Sargent Inc., an Old Town construction company founded in 1926 by Sargent’s grandfather Herbert E. Sargent.
BANGOR — Free lemonade on a hot day is always welcome, but activists working with the Alliance for a Clean and Healthy Main gave out a message as well as drinks on Friday.
Several representatives from the Maine People’s Alliance, one of the groups under the alliance of banner, were in West Market Square letting passersby know that toxic chemicals are slowly building up in the bodies of children and adults across the nation and the oceans, lakes and rivers still are very polluted.
The lemonade stand was a part of a statewide effort called “Taking a Stand for Our Health,” with similar stands established in Portland and Lewiston.
25 years ago — July 23, 1990
HERMON — Alton Fred Chapman, 98, the oldest resident of Hermon, recently was presented the Boston Post Cane. Chapman is a 75-year member and past master of the Hermon Lynde Lodge and a lifelong resident of Hermon. He graduated from the University of Maine in 1915 and worked as an electrical engineer. The presentation of the cane was made by Ethel White, president of the Hermon Senior Citizens Club; Buzzy LaChance, secretary of the Lynde Lodge; and Peggy Elmore, chairman of the Hermon town Council.
ORLAND — Artwork created by homeless people and by members of the Union of Maine Visual Artists will be featured in the show, “Hom -Homeless,” at the chapel of H.O.M.E.
Artist created symbols for the meaning of home, according to show organizers, and depicted consequences of their loss of homes, both on individuals and on society.
50 years ago —July 23, 1965
BANGOR — Bangor Economic Development Director Peter D’Errico announced the impending construction by Howard Johnson’s of a half-million dollar complex of buildings at the Odlin Road Interstate spur junction.
The complex will consist of a restaurant, a gate lodge and a 58-unit motel with swimming pool and a service station center. It will be constructed on land formerly owned by Henry Page. The building will be 70 feet by 60 feet, single-story, of concrete block and stucco, in typical Howard Johnson architectural design.
There are 12 other Howard Johnson’s in Maine but this will be the first Howard Johnson motor lodge in the state. The company has been operating for 40 years and has more than 750 restaurants in 37 states and the Bahamas. It has opened new restaurants at the rate of one every 10 days this year.
ORONO — This all started with an Associated Press release by Vivian Brown in which Ethel Merman said the old-time musical comedy is dead. This statement, with its implications, carried more impact locally thnt it would have previously, since the Bangor area has a brand-new summer theater operating on the University of Maine campus — and it is a music theater.
It was a good bet that Victoria Crandall, producer of the new Down East Music Theater, would have some definite opinions on Miss Merman statement — and she did.
As a starter, Miss Crandall said, nothing can be considered dead as long as it plays to sold-out houses throughout the summer theater circuit and at Lincoln Center in New York which “Show Boat,” “Desert Song,” “Naughty Marietta,” “New Moon,” “The Merry Widow” and others continue to do.
BANGOR — Rolling off the city of Bangor’s new data processing equipment for the first time were the 1965 tax bills which will begin finding their way to mailboxes this weekend. The city recorded all necessary identification valuation and tax data and let the machine do the adding and multiplication this year, as well as the printing. It cut the job from two to three weeks down to two days. The bill, as a result, will look a little different this year. The work is being done by the Data Processing Division of the Finance Department.
BANGOR — “How do you make it dinner horn out of a conch shell?” Imagine being faced with this question your first day alone on the reference desk at the Bangor Public Library. The reference librarians, the library’s unsung heroines, daily find the answers of such questions for puzzled patrons.
The other day someone called to ask the librarian to check the batting average for a baseball player in 1934. He wanted the answer only if he were right. He lost his bet.
Many summer visitors to Bangor stop in at the reference desk to inquire about family history. Many of these requests can be traced to the Bangor Directory and in obituaries.
Among the calls received one recent day were for request for information on the ethics of Aristotle, croquet rules, existentialism, the days of sunshine in a particular month, how to evaluate IQs and the paintings of George Washington Carver.
Working in the reference room at the Bangor Public Library are Miss Olive M. Smythe, head reference librarian, Mrs. Dorothy Q. Flagg, Mrs. Marianne Spinney, Mrs. Alyce Connor, Mrs. June Gelston and Miss Shirley Fields
100 years ago — July 23, 1915
BANGOR — Although no statement has been made by the supervising school committee, it is probable that the system of military drill in the high school will be re-established. There has been no drill since the destruction of the old high school building in the great fire of 1911.
A great deal has been heard about national preparedness in these days, and one way to accomplish it is through a reasonable amount of military instruction in the preparatory schools.
Several members of the school board, it is said, appreciate this. There is splendid opportunity for drill in the spacious Abbott Square lot and the school’s huge gymnasium.
Sgt. Bolding of the regular army, who was sent here as instructor of the new machine gun company, would doubtless be glad to aid the cadet officers in any manner possible. Then, too, assistance could be obtained from the military instructor at the University of Maine.
BANGOR — Dr. Harry D. McNeil has been appointed by Gov. Curtis one of Penobscot County’s three medical examiners, an announcement that will be received with general satisfaction.
Dr. McNeil is a native of Bangor and has lived here most of his life. He is a graduate of Bangor High School and of Bowdoin Medical School, and for a year after leaving the latter institution he was house surgeon of St. Mary’s Hospital in Lewiston. Then he returned to Bangor and has been successful in the active practice of his profession.
Compiled by Ardeana Hamlin