Yesterday …

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10 years ago – June 3, 1993

(As reported in the Bangor Daily News)

ORONO – University of Maine President Frederick Hutchinson has recommended that Judith Bailey be the next vice president of research and public service at the Orono campus.

Given approval by the Maine System board of trustees July 12, Bailey will become the first woman to hold such a position on the campus. She was selected from among 80 candidates in a national search.

Bailey came to the university in 1988 and currently serves as interim vice president for research and public service.

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ORONO – They are University of Maine students majoring in disciplines ranging from journalism to wildlife management – and they can swing a hammer and drive a nail with the best of them.

As volunteers for Greater Bangor Habitat for Humanity, organized in 1988 by a group of church people determined to do something about the plight of low-income families living in substandard housing, the students are among a group that constructed a home for a family in Bangor during the 1992-1993 academic year.

25 years ago – July 3, 1978

GLENBURN – Twelve people attended a meeting to organize the Friends of Glenburn Library, which will help with the support and fund raising for the new community library to be located on the school grounds.

The group also will conduct a survey of area residents to find out what hours the library should be open, whether a book delivery service should be provided to people who can’t leave their homes, and what kinds of books people would like to see in the library.

The information will be forwarded to the library committee, said Mildred Olson, a committee member.

A community library is going to be set up in a small building that will be moved to the school grounds later this summer. At a special town meeting this spring, townspeople voted to give $4,000 for the library project. The school committee appropriated $2,600 for the library. Donations have been received from the Parent Teachers Association and West Glenburn Community Club, and $600 was raised by the local Girl Scouts.

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WINTERPORT – Danny Baker hasn’t yet learned how to saw a woman in half, but he’d like to. It would be an addition to his magic show.

But Baker is learning how to do a “metamorphosis” – an ancient sort of trick in which a subject is chained into a trunk, a curtain is drawn and presto! the curtain opens, revealing the magician in the trunk and the subject free.

At the age of 19, Danny has already been learning and practicing sleight of hand, card trick and illusions for six years.

When he was 13, someone gave him a magic set. “I learned those tricks,” he recalled. “The best one involved multiplying billiard balls.”

After that, he began ordering new “effects,” as they are known in the trade. “Each time I’d order a new effect, I would practice it until I knew it. You’d have to say I’m largely self-taught.”

50 years ago – July 3, 1953

BANGOR – Bangor Kiwanians learned of “The Growth of Little League Baseball” from Harry J. Dalton of Brewer, commissioner of Bangor’s Little League system.

Dalton spoke briefly on the national level and then traced the development of Little League in Bangor since its inception in 1932. Last year, there was one league with four teams, and this year there are two leagues with eight teams. A total of 120 boys participate.

The Kiwanis Club sponsors one of the teams.

The commissioner emphasized that the leagues need a lot of support from the adults right now, more in the form of labor and manpower than money. He said there is much work to be done before the ideal setup is reached.

The East Side league now plays its games at Mary Snow field, he explained, and the West Side group plays at the Webster Avenue field.

Work is in progress on a new side field on Stillwater Avenue, and it is hoped that games will be played there soon.

Dalton related that the youngsters are playing under direct adult supervision and that the league has a competent, though below-strength, umpire staff. He said there are 12 umpires, but 16 to 20 actually are needed.

100 years ago – July 3, 1903

BANGOR – During the heavy thunder storm, which tickled the nerves of Bangor people from 3 until 5 o’clock Thursday morning, the house of Walter Roberts on Boynton Street was struck. The bolt came down by way of an elm tree, jumped to the eaves, ripped a portion of the gutter and a lot of clapboards off, broke through the wall, smashed a gas fixture, demolished a picture on the opposite wall and jumped out through a window and found the ground. Miss Elizabeth Roberts, who was sleeping in the room at the time, escaped with but a small cut on one hand, caused by falling glass.

Mr. Roberts ran down to Fire Station 3 on Hammond Street to get help as he thought that some of the house was on fire. The wagon, with a full crew, just back from an Exchange Street fire, hurried to the place, but not a trace of fire could be found.

The house was badly damaged by the bolt, as a hole through the wall was torn that is fully two feet in diameter. Inside the house, plastering came down by the yard and woodwork was splintered into shavings.

Miss Roberts was not stunned by the shock, although she was dazed. She had fully recovered by the middle of the forenoon.

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WINTERPORT – The moonlight sail in the steamer Verona down the Marsh Bay, below Winterport, and back, under the management of the local festival chorus, was one of the most enjoyable evening trips that has ever been made from the city.

If weather conditions had been ordered in advance, the management couldn’t have done better. The smart gale from the north, which swirled through Bangor all day, faded out at sundown. The air was balmy, overcoats not being needed even below Winterport. The sailing time was advertised for 7 o’clock, but long before that hour stragglers began to flock down to get good places. At 6:30 a sizeable crowd was aboard, and at 7:10, with the band under Director Ringwall pumping out a soul-stirring march, there was a crowd on the dock frantically waving handkerchiefs as the boat backed out into the stream.

A landing was made at Hampden, to take on some of the festival people, and then the boat went down nearly to Indian Point, above Bucksport, made a graceful turn, and bucked a strong ebb tide back to her wharf. The city clocks were striking 11 o’clock as Captain Barbour brought his good boat abreast of the wharf.

Compiled by Ardeana Hamlin