(As reported in the Bangor Daily News)

10 years ago – May 22, 1993

BANGOR – Eastern Maine Technical College has received a $10,000 grant from the Helene Fuld Health Trust and $33,000 from the National Science Foundation, college officials announced.

The Fuld trust awarded the EMTC nursing department a grant to improve teaching facilities. The grant will be used to improve the nursing laboratory and learning center and supplement audio-visual resources. Computers and interactive video systems will be provided.

The NSF grant was to hold a series of training conferences on metallurgy and is part of NSF’s Undergraduate Faculty Enhancement Program.

Donald Hansen, machine tool instructor, will direct the project on metallurgy and invite welding and machine faculty to five-day conferences during the next three years.

.

ORONO – Tuition rates may soon be another of the differences between the seven college campuses in the University of Maine System, as little by little each takes on an individual identity and carves out its own niche in higher education in the state.

System trustees are expected to approve a new tuition structure for the seven-campus system, overhauling the decade-old method that had campuses charging one of two tuition rates. The structure would have a total of five rate levels, with Augusta charging a base rate, the University of Maine charging the highest rate and other campuses falling at various levels between the two.

25 years ago – May 22, 1978

BANGOR – Little Michael Rackliff was a bit overwhelmed by it all. Rackliff, who stands slightly under 4 feet and weighs about 75 pounds, had just walked into the White House Rose Garden with his second-grade classmates from Abraham Lincoln School in Bangor.

The first people he met were a cluster of White House reporters, one of whom stuck a microphone into his face and asked, “Is this place bigger than your house?”

The weekend visit to Washington by the 30 Bangor second-graders was more than they bargained for.

The youngsters engaged in a question-and-answer session with President Jimmy Carter on the White House lawn. The President’s daughter, Amy, gave them a personal tour of her famous tree house. The eight-year-olds were introduced to Grits, the first family’s dog, by Mrs. Carter. And they capped off the visit with of the Oval Office, with the president himself as their guide.

50 years ago – May 22, 1953

BANGOR – Wrestling’s most fabulous character, Gorgeous George of Hollywood, Calif., will make another stop on a trail which has taken him into virtually every city in America. George brings his long, wavy locks to Bangor and will wrestle Tony Enos of New York in a match slated to go two of three falls at city hall.

George is an internationally known wrestling personality. He is the original “character” wrestler, complete with feminine locks, silkish robes, perfumed trunks and valet to do the heavy lifting. His appearance in the ring provokes more laughs than an afternoon at a monkey circus, but don’t let his appearance fool you.

George’s opponent is of unknown quality hereabouts. That is of small importance – the Gorgeous One is the big attraction.

.

BANGOR – State Street Amoco Service, a newly completed gasoline filling station at the corner of State and Grove streets, will hold its official opening today. A variety of free gifts will highlight the opening.

Oliver G. Hall Jr., operator of the new station, has announced that all opening day customers will receive gifts and that candy and lollipops will be available for children.

Hall, a native of Bangor, is offering complete automobile service in one of the most modern and fully equipped stations in the entire state. The spacious structure is the latest design in service stations, constructed to provide speedy and efficient service.

100 years ago – May 22, 1903

HAMPDEN – A painter who was accompanied by a three-pound package of brilliant red ochre created picturesque effects and disturbed many passengers on the Hampden Road in a car, which left the square for Hampden Lower Corner.

The painter wanted a local car as he was only going a short distance, and refused to pay the 6-cent fare that is required on through cars. The conductor saw that he was a kicker and collected the remaining fares before coming back to argue.

The argument was interesting. The painter let language roll from his lips that isn’t popular in polite circles – he called the conductor about everything he could think of readily and added a little more that his imagination worked out. The passengers were mad, but nobody interfered.

Finally the conductor informed the man that his was a case of walk, and handing him his nickel told the motorman to shut off.

Then preparations were commenced for interesting post-prandials. A brief but active rough-and-tumble occurred, at the close of which Mr. Painter was in the street. Not so with the red ochre, however. That was distributed with fine impartiality over the clothing, faces and hands of the combatants, and over the car. It looked from a distance as though there had been a wholesale slaughter, which gave rise to the wild rumors that floated uptown.

The car was sent to the barn and scrubbed and swept. The motorman and conductor brushed themselves and looked pleasant. And the passengers forgot it.

.

BANGOR – Large as is the main hall of the YMCA building, it is filled to its capacity each afternoon with throngs of Bangor women, representing every walk and condition of life. Nor is the reason at all far to seek. It is to be found in a little woman whose voice is strikingly agreeable, whose personality is eminently pleasing, and one who is generally recognized as one of the best informed culinary experts which the country has yet produced – Mrs. Helen Armstrong, now conducting a series of addresses in the art of scientific cooking.

Simplicity is the keynote of Mrs. Armstrong’s success. “I don’t believe in teaching fancy dishes,” she said to a reporter earlier in the week; and indeed the dishes she prepares are not fancy by any means. But they are such dishes as people of ordinary means and ordinary tastes would care to place upon their tables; and the making of each one is made extremely plain to every auditor in the hall. To attend one of the lectures is a liberal education – for to the most superficial, they teach many truths.

Mrs. Armstrong’s experiments are conducted upon the New Process range – “one of the best,” said she to the writer recently, “that I have ever tried.”

Compiled by Ardeana Hamlin