YESTERDAY …

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10 years ago – Nov. 4, 1994

(As reported in the Bangor Daily News)

BANGOR – Rock concerts at Bangor Auditorium are few and far between, and Wednesday night it took 32 police officers to break up and unruly crowd of concertgoers who were there to see the rock group Phish.

In the end, eight people were arrested, but officials said damage was minimal and no one was injured.

There were 5,500 ticket holders, but Bangor police Chief Randy Harriman said an additional 1,000 people without tickets showed up and wanted to get into the sold-out concert.

Mike Dyer, director of Bass Park, said the concert was delayed slightly and people standing in the rain became anxious. He said the trouble started when a couple of nonticket holders pushed the doors open to get in.

“Basically, we arrived to find 3,000 kids outside crowded around the doors trying to get in,” the chief said.

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ORONO – Nothing – absolutely nothing – comes between them and their hockey.

A one-week tropical cruise? Forget it. Two weeks in Hawaii? Never. Don’t even mention fleeing the perils of a long Maine winter to bask in the warmth of the sunny South. They will have none of it.

From November to March, it is hockey first, hockey last, hockey always.

They are the Ladies of Alfond, avid University of Maine hockey fans to whom the Black Bears and their coach, Shawn Walsh, can do no wrong.

Led by Madeline Bacon, a spitfire great-grandmother approaching her 87th winter, they constitute a special group of Maine hockey supporters. “Hockey put Maine on the map,” Madeline said. “Wherever you go, they don’t know your governor or the president of your university, but they know your coach.”

Dot Blaisdell, Gwen Winchell and several other Bangor area friends – who admit to being past the age of retirement – are anything but retiring when it come to cheering for their Black Bears.

The Ladies of Alfond are a breed apart. Unlike many their age, they go out on cold winter nights rather than stay in. Instead of playing bridge before a roaring fire, they become one with the community that is Maine hockey.

25 years ago – Nov. 4, 1979

BANGOR – Melvin Morgan of Bangor has been appointed DeMolay executive officer of Maine. He succeeds Harold L. Chute of Orono.

A native of Winterport, Morgan is an engineering graduate of the University of Maine at Orono and is a retired officer of the U.S. Army Signal Corps. He has been associated with the Maine Department of Transportation since 1967 and is now in charge of the Soils Section of the Materials and Research Division.

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ORONO – The chancellor of the University of Maine named 12 members of the university community to a committee studying the effects of the energy shortage on the institution.

Chancellor Patrick E. McCarthy said the group will advise him and the trustees on the “steps to take to preserve the quality of our academic program” in the face of fuel shortages. The committee is studying energy-saving moves, including possible changes to the academic calendar.

50 years ago – Nov. 4, 1954

BANGOR – Stations WABI and WABI-TV will break ground within 90 days for the erection of the Pine Tree State’s first specially designed “television city,” Leon P. Gorman Jr., general manager of the stations, announced.

The proposed site for the new building was not disclosed, but it was understood from a reliable source that among the locations considered by the stations were the I.O.O.F. building on Park Street, the old Henley-Kimball building on May and Summer streets, and the vacant lot on Penobscot and Park streets.

The television center will cost an estimated $250,000, Gorman said, adding that it will integrate the latest engineering developments for radio and television into its studio design.

The new quarters of WABI-WABI-TV will be a three-story building and will contain four large modern studios for broadcasts. It was designed by Eaton W. Tarbell and Associates.

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BANGOR – Mrs. Arthur Wentworth of 210 Forest Ave. celebrated her 90th birthday with an open house at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Eugene C. Canty, with whom she has made her home for the past six years. It was a lovely party attended by about 50 friends, but this nonagenarian in no shut-in. In fact, she is on the go quite a bit attending meetings of various organizations.

Mrs. Wentworth was born in East Bangor and resided there until the death of her husband a few years ago. Today, living with her daughter, she assists with the housework, reads a great deal, watches TV and attends the Bangor community concerts, the First Methodist Church and the Frances Dighton Williams Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

Mrs. Wentworth spends considerable time working on crossword puzzles. She is an ardent Republican and never misses an opportunity to cast her ballot at election time.

For the open house, mums were used to decorate the attractively appointed tea table.

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BANGOR – Miss Myrtle Stuntzmer of Wellesley, Mass., addressed the Bangor Chapter of the American Association of University Women.

Miss Stuntzmer, who was sent to Germany by the U.S. State Department as a specialist in education and was assigned to Berlin by the office of the U.S. High Commissioner for Germany, served three months recently as consultant and adviser in the West Berlin kindergarten. There, she trained German teachers in more democratic ways of teaching and using the American-built and equipped schools.

It is interesting to note that in 1849 Friedrich Froebel, a German educator, established a kindergarten training school at Lubenstein, but an edict was issued forbidding the establishment of kindergartens. After a century, the Germans are now interested in having America teach them how to carry on such schools.

100 years ago – Nov. 4, 1904

BANGOR – Alice Bolton, the 15-year-old daughter of Mrs. A.Y. Bolton of South Brewer, is a young lady of nerve and daring, there’s no doubt about that.

She crawled through the manhole in the side of the new standpipe at South Brewer, then scaled to the top on the rough, swinging, wooden ladders, a climb of a sheer 100 feet without a rest or break – a trip few men would dare make for the fun of it.

When Alice reached the top she found but a narrow rim, with nothing to hold onto, but she didn’t mind. She perched there for 15 minutes or so, viewed the country over while she hummed a ditty, kicking her heels in time against the resounding sides of the great cylinder.

Then she came down the same way she went up and thought it wasn’t much, after all.

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BANGOR – The Millmen’s Union, Number 10039, held its second annual concert and ball in City Hall. The ball was to have been held Oct. 21, but was postponed on account of a heavy storm.

The Longshoremen’s Union failed to appear so a tug-of-war was arranged among the two portions of the Millmen’s Union, but only lasted a second as one side almost immediately pulled the other down the hall.

The dance floor manager and aides were Louis Virgie, Albert Hardy, E.J. Rogers, James Ross, John Brown, George Hennessey, A. Brooks, Scott Costigan, J. Inman and W.F. Hardy.

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ORONO – The Orono High School football team lined up against Old Town High School in a fast and furious game at Webster Park. The resulting score was 11-5 in favor of Orono. Our high school is a smart team and the townspeople are very proud.

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SOUTH BREWER – The Happy Hour club met with the Misses McDonald at their home on South Main Street, where a most enjoyable evening was passed. The next meeting of the club will be held at the home of Miss Emma Smith on Pendelton Street.

The fourth assembly in the course being given by the Happy Hour Club will be held in Segeunkedunk Hall.

These dances are proving very popular with the better class of the dancing public, as they are strictly private and admission can be obtained only by presenting the invitation or ticket at the door.

Compiled by Ardeana Hamlin