Yesterday …

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10 years ago – March 4, 1994

(As reported in the Bangor Daily News)

HOLDEN – The Comprehensive Planning Committee received comments from camp owners and business people on future development around the town’s lakes and ponds and along Route 1A.

Town Manager Larry Varisco said the committee was pleased with the public response.

Approximately 50 camp owners attended a meeting about the lakes and ponds. Camp owners wanted to know if residents wanted public access to the various bodies of water. Committee members assured the owners that they were not fighting for that.

Camp owners were strongly opposed to increasing public access to the lakes and ponds, said Varisco, because they were concerned about the currently poor quality of roads leading to the camps.

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BANGOR – Staples Inc., a large and rapidly growing office supplies retailer, is opening a store in Bangor.

The new outlet will be located in the Airport Mall, next to Doug’s Shop ‘n’ Save. Rosewood Construction Corp. of Marlborough, Mass., is readying the retail space for the new store.

Staples, which has headquarters in Framingham, Mass., sells office supplies, business machines, office furniture, computers, computer supplies and other office products.

The company has grown rapidly during recent years, with annual sales increasing from $181 million in 1990 to $833 million in 1993. It has more than 230 stores and more than 7,000 employees in the United States and Canada.

The exact date for the Bangor opening is uncertain but is expected to be during the coming spring.

25 years ago – March 4, 1979

HAMPDEN – Mrs. Ella Greeley of Hampden, widow of Harry B. Greeley, celebrated her 90th birthday with friends and relatives dropping into her Main Street home and wishing her happy birthday.

She received cards and a large colorful plant among the gifts. The couple had one child, the late Paul Greeley. She also has four grandchildren and 12 great grandchildren. She still enjoys the hobbies she pursued as a homemaker – her sewing, knitting and crocheting.

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BANGOR – “Mandy’s Grandmother,” a picture book by well-known author Liesel Skorpen of Hampden, has been made into a film starring Maureen O’Sullivan. The Bangor Public Library Children’s Department will present its first showing in Maine in Portland Hall, home of the Bangor Community Theater at Bangor Community College.

Mrs. Skorpen will be on hand to autograph copies of her book, which will be available.

“Mandy’s Grandmother” is a very real story about a little girl whose grandmother was not as Mandy thought grandmothers should be. The film is 30 minutes in length.

50 years ago – March 4, 1954

LEVANT – Second Lt. Miles C. Durfey, 23, of Columbus, Ohio, had a narrow escape when his F-86 Sabre jet crashed in Levant.

Lt. Durfey used the ejector seat when he found he was in trouble and parachuted to safety. He was at the Station Hospital at Dow Air Force Base that evening with facial cuts and bruises, and base officials said he had no serious injuries, but was being held in the hospital for observation.

A member of the 49th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, Air Defense Command, based at Dow, Lt. Durfey was on a routine training flight when the accident occurred.

Sgt. Roger Hicks, a medical technician with the Aircraft and Warning Center in Eastern Maine, was en route to work when he saw the parachute drifting down. He found the pilot and brought him to the Dow hospital.

Lt. Durfey was picked up about a mile and a half from Kenduskeag, about a mile and a half from where the ill-fated jet landed.

The plane, according to base officials, is a total wreck. Wreckage of the aircraft was strewn over a half-mile area in a thickly wooded section, believed to be the property of Merton Harris of Levant. The aircraft landed about a mile from the highway.

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ORONO – Dr. Garland B. Russell, associate professor of education and director of teacher training at the University of Maine, was guest speaker at the March meeting of Esther Eayres Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution. Dr. Russell spoke on the topic “World Citizenship and TV.”

In his address, Russell said that television marks the climax in the revolution of communication. He pointed out that in order to use this new method of communication in assisting in teaching citizenship to children, one must study the basic ingredients of good citizenship.

“Television can assist by relating to the viewer the slow progress of civilization, whether it be the gradual unfolding of the United Nations, or the invention of the motor car,” he said. Televising of current events and actions of the United Nations will help children to learn the lesson of world citizenship.

Dr. Russell stated that he believes that television, through its fine programs in science, music, art, vocational living and emotional portrayals can do much to educate the prospective citizen.

100 years ago – March 4, 1904

BANGOR – A bunch of newspaper workers were talking the other night at lunch hour, and as the conversation was taking place in the sanctum of the telegraph operator, the subject naturally turned to those channels.

“Tramp operators are disappearing,” said somebody who pushed a pen and had been reading a book of telegraph tales.

“Yes, and they were the most interesting and efficient men in the service,” remarked the operator.

Then he went on to tell of the last conspicuous tramp who came to Bangor. His name was Bloomfield and he was an artist with a cap A.

It was when night press was coming in over the Western Union, at the time the office was under the management of Charles E. Bliss. Bloomfield drifted in, his shoes all gone, his clothing in tatters, hungry as a bear and without a cent in his pockets.

“I want a job long enough to pay for a pair of shoes,” he said to Mr. Bliss.

Mr. Bliss looked him over from head to foot, decided to take a chance and went out and bought a pair of shoes and something to eat.

Then they came back together and Bloomfield sat down to go to work. Somebody offered him a pen.

“Wait a minute,” he said. “I’ve got an old pen of my own.” And pushing down through a hole in a vest pocket he drew forth a stub about an inch and a half long, fished a pen out of another pocket and started in.

It is enough to say about his work that the man handling telegraph on the old Whig (it was before the NEWS was organized) said that it was the best copy he had had for years.

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ORONO – In the forenoon, the most business-like rain of the season began its work – dashing against the window panes, washing the sidewalks until they were as slippery as glass, beating down the snow drifts, cleaning the frozen house gutters, filling the empty cisterns and converting every hollow into a pool.

The rain continued all day, at times pouring down in torrents and everybody rejoiced and said, “Spring’s here!”

It was a fact emphasized by the appearance of pussy willows and that the boys have begun to play marbles on the sunny sides of the grocery store.

Compiled by Ardeana Hamlin