10 years ago – Sept. 12, 1992

(As reported in the Bangor Daily News)

WINTERPORT – Six-year-old Kyle Ward sits at a lima bean-shaped table and, red crayon in hand, draws a mask of a pig-like monster which he calls a monster mouth, monster fingernails and monster cheeks.

Nearby, 8-year-old Daniel Hallett takes time out from the colorful design he is making on a paper airplane to help his classmate with the spelling of monster to go along with the picture.

“Say ‘maw, maw, maw’ – you want monster,” Daniel said, sounding out the first few letters of the word his younger classmate is trying to spell.

It’s that kind of interaction that educators at the Leroy H. Smith School in Winterport are hoping for in this classroom without grades.

Here, children from 5 to 8 will receive individual attention as well as work at helping each other. There are no kindergarten, first-grade or second-grade pupils, just pupils.

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BANGOR – Penobscot Job Corps students came in second in the annual Academic Olympics held in Bangor on Friday.

The team from Bangor was one of four competing for the chance to go on to the national competition in Washington, D.C., in October.

Held at the Job Corps center on Union Street, the competition was won by the Northland Job Corps Center from Vermont, which has won the competition for three years running.

During the Olympics, four students and one alternate on each team were asked a series of questions involving language arts, social studies, mathematics and science. Topics included such subject matter as chemistry, biology and word problems.

The Penobscot team consisted of Kim Smith, Thompson Stimpel, Mike Englemann, Carlton Larrabee and alternate Chris Vickers. The team was coached by Bill Childs and Carleen Coffin.

25 years ago – Sept. 12, 1977

BANGOR – Michael Alpert, himself an artist, long has mulled the possibility of an arts center for this area – a place where practicing artists can congregate for workshops, demonstrations and classes; a place where instruction can be given to the youngsters of the locality; a place, indeed, where anyone interested in art and wishing to improve himself in the execution of it can find illumination and encouragement. These are among the goals of Open Space.

Lending solid support and getting into the fray herself, Nancy Benson, an artist specializing in silkscreen, has joined Alpert in working out what they feel is an innovative scheme for Bangor and its environs. It is hoped that Open Space will materialize shortly in what these two describe as functional and pleasant quarters on the third floor of a building on Columbia Street.

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BANGOR – Valerie Scott-Garmire of Placerville, Calif., who works for Trans International Airlines, picketed at Bangor International Airport Sunday along with some 28 other flight attendants who are seeking shorter working days, a contract, and higher base pay. TIA is the nation’s largest charter air carrier. Local 2707 of the Teamsters, which represents the attendants, has been working 18 months without a contract. Workdays of 18 hours are reportedly not uncommon. Their strike began Saturday.

50 years ago – Sept. 12, 1952

BANGOR – Native ingenuity and ability to improvise long have been recognized as outstanding American characteristics that have been put to good use and now these talents have been called upon by the Bangor police department – of all things – to trap speeding motorists.

Capt. Maurice W. Small yesterday put on a demonstration of a homemade gadget called an enoscope, which may well be the cause of a lot of trouble for speed demons.

Both Chief John B. Toole and Capt. Small frown on using the expression “speed trap” when referring to the enoscope, but its functions actually boil down to a means of clocking unsuspecting motorists as they plow along the highway.

The innocent-looking gadget can be set up anywhere along a street without a policeman anywhere around – but that’s where the catch is, the cop is around and the speed of an oncoming car is being clocked.

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ORONO – More than 800 brand new freshmen brought life to the late summer quiet of the University of Maine today and plunged immediately into the serious business of starting their college careers.

Most were frankly awed at the prospect, while others appeared on the green campus armed with the temporary sophistication that comes with many high school diplomas.

But frightened or over-confident, the approximately 580 boys and 220 girls all were confused, whether they admitted it or not.

One of the busiest spots on the campus was an information booth set up near the bookstore and manned by members of the Senior Skulls and All-Maine Women. Throughout the day, the booth was crowded with freshmen looking for dormitories and for faculty members, uneasy parents looking for freshmen and vice versa.

The new students began to arrive early in the morning, with the bulk of the class signed in by 5 p.m. Cars passed through the university entrances throughout the day, disgorging freshmen and luggage at all the dormitories. Sophomore Owls aided the men students in getting settled, while Sophomore Eagles were on hand at the girls’ dormitories.

100 years ago – Sept. 12, 1902

BANGOR – “A Man of Mystery,” a melodrama containing a distinctly original plot and lifted above the level of the commonplace by the introduction of a number of novel situations, was played by the Morrisons on Thursday night to a large and appreciative audience. The play was well acted and handsomely staged, the setting of the second act being one of the most elaborate ever seen in Bangor.

On Friday afternoon “The City of New York” will be produced. The evening bill will be “The Lady from Laramie.”

Says Mr. Hi Henry, the well-known minstrel entertainer: “Refined minstrelsy, among other important improvements, dispenses with the ‘slap stick,’ fright wig, stuffed club and weak tricks, and places the performer before an audience upon his merits. Personal allusions, local gags and political mentions are strictly forbidden. The full vocal chorus supplants the typical ballad quartet and musical instruments heretofore known only in the opera, such as bassoon, oboe, the compound harp and organ are introduced.”

In addition to these things an extensive list of features and bright vaudevilles are prominent with Hi Henry’s at the Opera House on Tuesday, Sept. 16. Matinee and night. Seats on sale Saturday.

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OLD TOWN – Now that the baseball season is over and everybody is anxious for a team next season, it is just the time to get up something to clean up the comparatively small deficit which remains. It is proposed to get up a fair, a rouser, with everybody in it and everybody interested. With the proper pushers at the head of it, it could be made a grand success and the debt wiped out quickly.

Isaac H. Lunt of Bangor will superintend the construction of the stonework of the new schoolhouse, the contract for which was awarded to Eben T. Hartwell of this city.

The baseball association is contemplating improving the grounds still more by plowing up and leveling the left field and touching up the outfield in a few other places.

Alex Morin has opened a shoe repairing shop on Main Street next to the Union Steam laundry.

Compiled by Matt Poliquin