10 years ago – June 16, 1994

(As reported in the Bangor Daily News)

INDIAN ISLAND – The sacred fire of the Wabanaki tribes will be brought by runners to Indian Island from Listuguj, Quebec, to mark the start of a weeklong Wabanaki Confederacy Conference.

Fire was the symbol of the original Wabanaki conferences, which began around 1676. The great fire was cared for by all members, symbolizing the warmth of perpetual friendship.

“The Penobscots were known as the fire keepers,” said Reuben Phillips, lieutenant governor of the Penobscot Tribe and co-chairman of the conference. “The emphasis is going to be on Wabanaki traditional song, dance and native dress.”

Originally, tribes from northern New England, the Maritimes, New York and Ottawa were members of the Confederacy. The conference provided a forum for tribes to voice their opinions and concerns and gave them an opportunity to participate in ceremonies to renew the bonds of the union. The Penobscots ceased their involvement in the conferences about 1857, when the Confederacy began to lose its political importance.

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BANGOR – It’s a balmy night in Bangor and Main Street is lined with people. Large groups of teenagers and young adults fill the parking lots of businesses that closed hours earlier.

They break into small clusters, lean on cars and motorcycles, smoke cigarettes and talk. The whine of half a dozen motorcycles diverts their attention momentarily as a streak of neon and white bikes blasts by.

Meanwhile, farther downtown, about 30 young people have gathered in West Market Square and are loudly protesting the city’s decision to prevent them from playing hackey-sack and tossing gravity sticks.

25 years ago – June 16, 1979

BREWER – Miss Evelyn Fickett stepped from behind her English teacher’s desk for the last time as Brewer Junior High School closed for the summer.

A cluster of sometimes tearful girls and boys stood in line to hug Miss Fickett goodbye, jamming the doorway of her room and passing in the hall outside.

“You were my best teacher,” said a girl clutching Miss Fickett’s shoulders and planting a kiss on her cheek.

“I wanted you for my teacher this year,” said another girl, echoing several others.

Miss Fickett is the kind of teacher people encounter once or twice in their schooling, the kind who teaches her personality as well as her subject.

She’s also a member of a vanishing breed, the product of a two-year normal school who first taught in a rustic two-room schoolhouse.

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HAMPDEN – Taking action that the chairman of the planning board said would destroy the town’s recently passed zoning ordinance, the planning board gave approval to a “cluster” subdivision as proposed by George Homstead.

The action will allow Homstead to develop a piece of property on Route 9 adjacent to the Souadabscook Stream as a subdivision, with some of the lots less than the 2-acre minimum lot size required in rural residentially zoned area.

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BANGOR – At the end of the winter season of the Acadia Repertory Theater, the entire company – save for Tina Young, Gary Volpendesta and John and Christine Erickson – defected.

Were it not for the fact that Acadia is a repertory theater, George Vafiades, its co-founder and artistic director, might well have been crushed by the necessity of recruiting a new group. On the contrary, Vafiades is confident that the time spent in Bangor and in Somesville (summer seat of the Acadia enterprise) has been invaluable to actors.

“One day,” he recalled, “I came in on a conversation among some of my people about the desirability of being in New York where one could take advantage of television stints and advertisements, all yielding good monetary returns. ‘Do you know,’ I said, ‘how many New Yorkers would give their eyeteeth to play Hamlet, Hedda Gabler, Blanche du Boise and Othello? Or to hone their skills on high comedy like the plays of Oscar Wilde and Noel Coward?'”

In preparation for his new summer season, Vafiades has auditioned reams of young actors to flesh out a basically new company.

Acadia got a definite boost last summer when the drama critic of the Boston Globe singled out the shows staged in Somesville for praise denied to almost every other Maine theatrical company.

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BANGOR – Maria Brountas, a Bangor teacher since 1957, has been named Bangor Teacher of the Year by the Bangor Education Association.

She was honored by the association at Miller’s Restaurant where she was presented with a plaque. Her name will be sent to the state Department of Education for consideration in its statewide Teacher of the Year contest.

She has taught primarily at the Fairmount School in the first, second and third grades. During 1955-56, she was a second-grade teacher in Weymouth, Mass.

Mrs. Brountas is married to Arthur P. Brountas. They have three children. She holds a bachelor’s degree from the State Teachers College of Boston and has taken courses from the University of Maine at Orono.

50 years ago – June 16, 1954

BANGOR – Steelwork on the new Bangor-Brewer bridge is nearly completed, according to Zint Wyant Jr., residential engineer for the state Highway Department.

The final span is expected to go into place within the next few days or early next week, it was announced. The steelwork was begun early this spring and had progressed according to schedule.

In the meantime, work is continuing on the approaches to the new span. Approximately one mile on Wilson Street in Brewer is being widened and resurfaced to accommodate the expected increase in traffic. All work is expected to be completed by Nov. 1.

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BANGOR – Seven men from Bangor and vicinity will take a 28-day cruise aboard destroyer escort vessels to South America as part of their U.S. Naval Reserve training.

The men are BMG2 Myron Nason, 28, Bangor; SKGSN Ernest Mardin, 26, Bangor; SN David Gould, 24, Bangor; FA Cleon Lawrence, 17, Carmel; FA Galen Lewis, 19, Carmel; and FN Charles Soper, 20, Orland.

The men will leave Union Station for Boston. They will serve aboard one of two vessels, the USS J. Hutchins DE360, or USS Cross DE448. They are expected to visit Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; Bahia, Salvador; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Caracas, Venezuela; Trinidad, British West Indies; and other South American ports.

100 years ago – June 16, 1904

BANGOR – The local Bangor Festival Chorus has arranged for another delightful moonlight sail on the steamer Cimbria June 24. The Bangor Band has been engaged to accompany the excursion party and a very enjoyable time is expected. The boat will leave the wharf of the Bangor & Bar Harbor Steamboat Co. at 7 o’clock and return in time so that the excursionists may be able to connect with the late trolley cars leaving West Market Square at 11:15 p.m. The boat will stop both ways at Hampden, and also will touch on the Brewer side of the river on its return.

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BANGOR – A party consisting of Mr. and Mrs. T.R. Savage and Miss Pauline Savage, and Mr. and Mrs. F.H. Strickland and Miss Eleanor Strickland, and Mrs. Eugene T. Sanger were at Pushaw where a new boat was launched for Miss Savage.

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BANGOR – Lemuel A. Torrens, formerly of Bangor and a brother of Mrs. E.T. Wasgatt, was the conductor at the big festivals just held at Bloomington and Rockford, Ill., receiving the highest sort of praise from the critics for the superior work of his large choruses. Mr. Torrens has long been one of the leading conductors of Chicago and his fame is growing each year.

Compiled by Ardeana Hamlin