Yesterday …

10 years ago – April 3, 1993

(As reported in the Bangor Daily News)

ORONO – About 1,000 students, coaches and parents will converge on the University of Maine for the annual Odyssey of the Mind state tournament, a competition challenging young people’s problem-solving skills and creativity.

Having grown too large for most of the high schools in the state, the tournament moves this year to the University.

Teams of five to seven students selected “problems” several months ago and have developed solutions that may involve skits, art, mechanical devices or balsa wood structures. The teams compete in spontaneous problem-solving in which the quickness and creativity of their answers are key.

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HAMPDEN – The Town Council will review a request from the town of Orrington asking Hampden to consider partial funding for an alarm system that would notify residents of Hampden and Orrington of a chlorine leak at LCP chemical plant, which is on the Orrington side of the Penobscot River.

25 years ago – April 3, 1978

BANGOR – Sunday is a day of rest and it was a well-deserved one for the organizers and workers of the second annual Bangor-Brewer YWCA International Fair.

At least 9,000 people passed through the gates at the Bangor Auditorium to enjoy games and handmade crafts and to sample foods from foreign countries.

“We had to net $15,000,” said Mary Dyer, executive director of the agency, “and I think we made it.”

The fair is the agency’s once-a-year, all-out effort to raise a large amount of funds to meet operating expenses. A great deal of the credit, noted Mrs. Dyer, goes to the 500 volunteers who worked on the project.

“We had everybody from lawyers, doctors, laborers to secretaries,” she said.

50 years ago – April 3, 1953

ORONO – When high school students from all sections of Maine visit the University of Maine campus for the first annual High School Weekend, they will have an opportunity to inspect the nation’s outstanding atomic energy exhibition. Comprising more than 30 exhibits, the atomic energy show will take up a good part of the space in the University’s Memorial Gymnasium.

University students will serve as demonstrators. A representative from the American Museum of Atomic Energy, Oak Ridge, Tenn., will give the college students instructions on how they are to explain the principles in the displays.

The exhibition is sponsored by the General Extension Service and the University’s atomic energy committee.

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BANGOR – Mrs. Valerie Smith of the New England Telephone and Telegraph Company was the guest speaker at a meeting of the Sub-Deb Club held at the home of Julia Largay. Mrs. Smith spoke on the “Dos and Don’ts of Telephone Conversations,” illustrating her talk with tape recordings of sample telephone conversations and pictures of the people speaking. Julie Higgins presided at a business session at which plans were made for a rummage sale. Refreshments were served by the hostess assisted by Rachel Terrill.

100 years ago – April 3, 1903

BANGOR – According to plans now contemplated by Mayor F.O. Beal, the old city hall which stands silent and deserted in lower Court Street is soon to be fitted into a fine drill room for the benefit of Co. G, NGSM, Capt. Harry M. Smith, commander. The interior of the old structure is to be entirely renovated, and will be supplied with many improvements. In fact, it will be made quite worthy of the splendid organization which Capt. Smith is rapidly recruiting, and will come as a distinct relief from the crowded and inadequate quarters on Park Street which the company has been forced to occupy during the last two years.

As Bangor people interested in military affairs will remember, the old city hall, when removed from Columbia Street to make room for the present city building, was given to Co. G and to the members of the high school battalion for use as a drill hall and armory. In 1898, however, through the efforts of Mr. Herbert L. Bowen, then captain of the cadets, the battalion withdrew in favor of the less convenient but more centrally located Prospect Street. Shortly afterward, the old structure being thoroughly gutted by fire, the members of Co. G were transferred to Park Street where the command has since remained.

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BANGOR – As Bangor people are very well aware, Mr. James P. Forrest, resident manager for J.J. Flynn’s numerous summer attractions at Riverside Park, and one of the best informed authorities upon theatrical matters in this section of the state, is once more to become intimately associated with a traveling dramatic organization. The organization in question is the Thomas E. Shea Company, well known to the play-goers of Bangor and vicinity, and for which Mr. Forrest is to act as the advance agent – or more elegantly speaking, the “advance business representative.”

Mr. Shea’s repertoire? Well, the title role in “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” Mathias in “The Bells,” Bertuccio in “The Fool’s Revenge,” and the cardinal in “Richlieu” are his more important roles, the public clamoring for the first-named in practically every city. Next year he will produce a new romantic play, “Banished by the King,” and, very possibly, Shakespeare’s “Othello.”

Compiled by Ardeana Hamlin