(As reported in the Bangor Daily News)

10 years ago – Feb. 17, 1995

BANGOR – T’was so grand, the Medieval Fair at Abraham Lincoln School in Bangor.

The third-grade pupils and teachers David Swett, Jewel Stevens and Debbie Friedman, under the direction of project leader “her ladyship” Carol Topliff, who is retiring in June, concluded a two-month unit on medieval studies with an event fit for king and queen.

They made three stained-glass hangings – a sword, a cross and a chalice – for the school windows with the help of art teacher Joanna Pennypacker and library worker Ruth Soucy.

Each teacher’s group prepared different information on village life, from building a castle and miniature village to clothing and food of the era, with the help of teacher Marie Gass. The biscuits were very tasty and so, we understand, were the tarts.

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WINTERPORT – Which Winterport roads need fixing up? What’s the procedure for making the decisions? Residents can find out by attending a workshop on road reconstruction sponsored by the board of selectmen.

As in most Maine towns, road conditions are a priority with the residents. The workshop will give Winterport residents an opportunity to learn about the process leading up to the road work.

The board also voted to dedicate the town report this year to Creighton Parker, Winterport fire chief, and to Margaret Wagner, wife of the late Dr. Samuel Wagner.

25 years ago – Feb. 17, 1980

BREWER – Everybody in Brewer knows “Big John” Bryant. He’s been on the Brewer Police Department force for 10 years. Over the decade, he gained something of a reputation for being a “tough cop.” He doesn’t take much guff from smart-mouthed kids and is not known for giving intoxicated drivers a second chance.

The thing that a lot of people don’t know about Bryant is the gift he has for drawing a cartoon. The Brewer sergeant admits that he receives many surprised reactions when people learn that the 6-foot-4-inch, 260-pound policeman gets his kicks from doodling with a pen and a piece of paper.

But Bryant’s hobby has progressed a long way from the charge he got when he started drawing as a boy. In fact, if everything turns out the way he hopes it does, a contract could be forthcoming from a Los Angeles comic strip syndicate.

At 46, Bryant is very close to completing a portfolio of 30 drawings that he said will be necessary to give a syndicate a fair representation of his work, “Fuzz Capers,” the title of the strip, begun about a year ago.

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BANGOR – Robert Nichols II has announced he will be a candidate for the Bangor school board seat vacated by Ann Quinn, who resigned. Nichols has been involved in several school system-related planning efforts. He was chairman of the goals committee, which authored a mission and goals statement for the school department last spring. He was vice chairman of the redistricting committee, which recently delivered its final report to the school board.

Nichols and his family have lived in Bangor since 1963. His wife, Mrs. Nancy H. Nichols, is the children’s librarian in the Bangor Public Library. Their four children have all been educated in public schools, with their youngest presently a senior at Bangor High School.

50 years ago – Feb. 17, 1955

ORONO – The University of Maine must raise faculty salaries, a trustee said today, or be satisfied with the “leavings” of other institutions of comparable size.

Norman A. Whitney told the legislative appropriations committee that unless the University’s construction program is continued, the state soon will be faced with a staggering problem, which would have a very deleterious effect on the university.

Dr. Arthur A. Hauck, university president, said preparations should be made to accommodate 1,500 more students by 1965 “even if the percentage of Maine high school graduates seeking to attend college remains the same.”

Only 17 percent of Maine high school graduates attend college, Hauck said, one of the lowest percentages in the nation. Lack of money, he said, is probably the principal reason.

At the same time, University of Maine tuition and fees of $316 are “probably the highest-charged state residents in any strictly land grant college or university,” Hauck said.

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BANGOR – For the fifth consecutive year, Rabbi Avraham H. Freedman of Beth Israel Synagogue and the Rev. Arlan Baillie, minister of All Souls Congregational Church, will exchange pulpits in observance of National Brotherhood Week.

This expression of good neighborliness and common religious heritage is looked forward to each year by these two congregations, and a cordial invitation has been extended to any who would like to attend either service.

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BREWER – The Valentine issue of the Brewer Banner has been released this week at Brewer High School. Its cover is a Valentine designed by Delia Langan. The paper features the origin of Valentine’s Day and the birthdays of Lincoln and Washington. Prepared and edited by members of the journalism club, this issue contains the usual school news and a page of games, as an added attraction. Mrs. Marion Johnson is the club adviser.

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BANGOR – Professor Mark R. Shibles, dean of the school of education at the University of Maine, discussed the perplexing problems confronting educators at the weekly luncheon of the Bangor-Brewer Lion’s Club at the Penobscot Hotel.

Shibles said there are three predicaments facing the national education program. Those predicaments are the vast amount of youngsters requiring education, the problem of housing these youngsters since we must educate them, and the insufficient supply of teachers.

He said that there were approximately 35,000 teachers graduated from qualified schools in 1954, but there were 121,000 open positions. The shortage is acute at the high school level, particularly in subjects such as mathematics, science, the languages and English.

The low salaries offered nationally to teachers have a direct bearing on the number of young people considering teaching as a career. The annual national salary for all teachers is about $3,600, the dean said.

100 years ago – Feb. 17, 1905

BANGOR – While the ice embargo is delaying operations at Cape Jellison, something is doing there. James F. Spellman, the well-known wharf builder of Bangor, has a crew there, with a donkey engine and other appliances for building 200 feet of wharf on the Cape Jellison side of Stockton Harbor.

A pile driver is building at Bucksport for this work. At first it was thought doubtful if piles of the size and quality to be used in wharf building could be obtained in the country around Stockton. In this emergency, the Great Northern Paper Co. was called on to furnish big sticks. Some 20 carloads of piles, nearly 1,000 pieces in all, are now loaded on flat cars of the Bangor and Aroostook Railroad at Old Town, waiting to be taken to Bucksport when the conditions of the ice and water there are such that they can be taken to Stockton.

Meanwhile the country around Stockton has been scoured and 100 fine spruce and oak sticks have been secured and will be forthcoming as soon as the work of wharf building is begun.

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BANGOR – The supreme attendance at the coffee party at St. John’s Catholic Church was bigger and better than ever before. There have been minstrel shows in Bangor before – society minstrels, and minstrels not society, and vaudeville performances by ambitious amateurs. But few of them had spent weeks in preparation, and fewer still expended all kinds of money on lights, decorations and costumes. Talk about electrical displays! Well, just wait and see.

The army of decorators has done its work well, and seldom has the big hall been more successfully beautified.

Compiled by Ardeana Hamlin