10 years ago – Nov. 20, 1993

(As reported in the Bangor Daily News)

Like runners at the start of the Boston Marathon, thousands of shoppers dashed into stores Friday. Traffic was heavy at the Bangor Mall. Despite the carnival atmosphere that accompanies the Friday after Thanksgiving, several shopkeepers told the NEWS that they remain cautious.

In an informal poll, the NEWS asked 10 local merchants to assess their prospects for the 1993 holiday shopping season. The retailers are hoping for the best.

A broad cross section of businesses participated in the survey. They included The Grasshopper Shop, BookMarc’s, Goldsmith’s Sporting Goods, The Maine Coat Town, Fairmount Hardware, W.C. Bryant and Son Jewelers, Dunnett’s appliances and furniture, Hampden Floral and Epstein’s clothing of Brewer.

The holiday season is critical for many retail businesses, with some stores doing one third of their annual volume – or more – between Thanksgiving and Christmas. On average, the shopkeepers ranked the significance of the season at 7.3, with three stores giving it a 10.

.

ORONO – Nine-year-old Isabel Wieck sits quietly at a small table and quickly does some mathematics problems involving two- and three-digit numbers. Nearby, her twin sister, Anna, is busy on some simple multiplication problems.

It will take the twins about seven minutes to complete the dozens of problems correctly and in the Kumon Method, the Japanese style education system the sisters are using.

Speed and accuracy are everything. Steeped in the Japanese education tradition that stresses discipline and repetition as a means to improve accuracy and understanding, the Kumon Method promises immediate feedback, structure and the opportunity to build self-esteem and self-discipline, and home mathematics skills. It’s drawing students as well as criticism around the country.

25 years ago – Nov. 20, 1978

EAST CORINTH – Twenty students at Central High School are members of a “family” that makes them do their schoolwork and toe the mark in class.

They can get fined for swearing or put in the “hot seat” where they find out what other people really think of them.

But most important, the “family” gives many of them the sense of belonging they need to succeed in school.

Project FOCUS, which has been adopted at other schools in Maine, is a partial answer to critics who charge that high schools are sterile, unfriendly places where corridor passes and ringing bells are more important than students’ feelings.

Aimed at truants and potential dropouts, discipline problems and underachievers, the program – which was designed in Minnesota – offers an alternative to the lockstep process called high school.

.

BANGOR – Officials at Bangor International Airport are investigating the cause of a fuel leak at a pump house at the airport. Assistant Fire Chief Robert Burke said the cause of the leak, which caused some 1,000 gallons of jet fuel to leak into the ground, is under investigation.

The possibility of a fire was remote, Burke said, as the kerosene-like fuel is not highly flammable. City crews spread sand around the leak to prevent the fuel from leaking into catch basins and making its way to the city’s sewage treatment plant or Kenduskeag Stream.

50 years ago – Nov. 20, 1953

BANGOR – Santa Claus is coming to Bangor and the Bangor Merchants Bureau has prepared a bright and merry parade to welcome him. Santa and his escort of bands and floats will tour downtown.

Once the Serenade to Santa parade is over, Santa will begin appearing in local stores and the Christmas season will be officially open.

The parade will be led by Maraglia, marshal. The floats will be judged by members of the press and radio, headed by Andrew J. Pease of the Bangor Daily News. Mr. Pease will be assisted by Bob McCausland of WABI and WABI-TV, the Rev. Hartwell Daley of the Bangor Commercial and E. Gordon Kelly of WLBZ.

.

BANGOR – The huts that the Salvation Army is setting up in Bangor instead of the usual tripods and kettles, as collection centers, will be in operation today.

Eventually, Senior Capt. Clair Lowman, commander of the local Army Citadel, hopes to have three of the tiny houses in operation on Bangor’s downtown streets. To date, two have been built, to his specifications. The houses are 7 feet high and hold one person.

A record player and amplifier is placed inside each house and Capt. Lowman expects the music to be audible for some distance.

.

BANGOR – The officers of the Beth Israel Sisterhood will be installed tonight in an impressive service at the regular Friday evening service at the Beth Israel Synagogue.

Rabbi Avraham H. Freedman will install the officers.

Mrs. Julius Stone will be installed as president. Other officers inducted are Mrs. Harold Epstein, Mrs. Louis Rolsky, Mrs. Philip Dresner, Mrs. Samuel Stern and Mrs. Leo Viner. Rabbi Freeman will deliver a sermon on the Thanksgiving theme.

100 years ago – Nov. 20, 1903

BANGOR – Ice one and a half inches in thickness formed in the Penobscot Wednesday night, and tugs had hard work moving vessels through it. The schooners Lizzie D. Clark from New Bedford, to load lumber from the Eastern Manufacturing Co., and Lillian, from Portland, with corn to the A.R. Hopkins Co., arrived. The tugs towed several vessels out, including the Italian bark Caterina Cacace, for Palermo, with lumber by F.H. Strickland, and the new four-master Horace A. Stone, for Belfast to finish rigging.

A considerable fleet of vessels is bound here, and the weather may moderate so that all get in, load and get away before the final freeze – but there is no telling about this, and the late comers may have to stop at Bucksport.

ORONO – Far travels the fame, even to this late day, of good old Molly Molasses, a conspicuous figure on the Penobscot before the Civil War. In the current issue of the American Lumberman, published in Chicago, appears the following sketch of the wise old woman, together with her portrait:

Every Penobscot River lumberman and everyone who at any time of his life was acquainted with that part of Maine will recognize and, we fancy, be glad to see this picture of a famous character of a generation ago. It is Molly Molasses, a wise old woman of the Old Town tribe of the Penobscot Indians. She was a great friend of the whites and when approaching 100 years of age was much interested in the white people and their affairs, and was a sort of mediator between them and her people.

The Old Town styles of feminine attire of that period are correctly reproduced in the photograph. The “plug” hat was the mode in headgear. The original photograph, of which the accompanying engraving is a reproduction, was made by S.W. Sawyer of Bangor in 1861.

.

BANGOR – The new two-cent postage stamp issued by the post office department to take the place of the much-criticized stamp which has been in circulation since last January has at last made its appearance in Bangor. In the batch of stamps received here Thursday morning was a liberal proportion of these twos. They were put on sale immediately and patrons received them without knowing the difference in most cases. Not one in a hundred knew that Uncle Sam had designed a new stamp, and scores of buyers have posted their letters without more than glancing at the official messenger.

Compiled by Ardeana Hamlin