Yesterday …

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(As reported in the Bangor Daily News)

10 years ago – March 17, 1995

BANGOR – James Patrick Burke tugged at his Kelly-green cap while his 78-year-old eyes twinkled like an altar boy’s.

Then, as if by magic, the old family names of Bangor spilled out one after another – Foley, Griffin, Condon, Welch, McManus, McGuff, McClay, O’Sullivan, Cahill, Keefe …

“They all lived in this neighborhood, and believe me, there was no backstuff,” he recalled. “This was Ward 2 – all West Side Democrats. Lots of Irish cops lived here. But it’s gone now, and you can’t live on a memory.”

Add this to Burke’s list of notable names: Shaw’s.

If plans hold to schedule, the first shovelful of dirt – or is it sod? – will be turned over by July as construction begins on a 53,000-square-foot, $8 million Shaw’s supermarket complex to be built on lower Main Street near Patten, Hellier and Parker streets.

Many Irish residents such as Burke left the neighborhood years ago, and it has lost its rough-and-tumble, culturally rich identity. Once it was redolent with the molten metal of the Wood, Bishop & Co. stove foundry, the whirring kilns of the Bangor Stoneware Co., the whole milk of the Dahlberg Creamery and the red clay of W.S. Hellier and Co. Brickyard.

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BANGOR – After emigrating from Ireland more than 40 years ago, Elizabeth Hall will spend St. Patrick’s Day celebrating her newly minted American citizenship. Hall and 17 other immigrants were sworn in as U.S. citizens.

The swearing-in featured all the pomp and circumstance expected of such an event. A formal color guard, a Bangor High School stage flanked by the flags of the states, and a speech by a former defense secretary welcomed the new Americans to the rights and responsibilities of citizenship.

For Hall, who arrived in the United States just shy of 18 years of age, becoming an American was something she had always planned, but had put off while raising a family.

25 years ago – March 17, 1980

OLD TOWN – Jack Tourtillotte was very proud of his team. The Indians didn’t win the state Class A schoolgirl championship, but they played one heck of a game. They played well. He knew it, they knew it.

There were no lingering tears, no gnashing of teeth, no cries of “foul!” The Old Town girls had done their best and been defeated by others who also had done their best. They accepted the outcome maturely, gracefully and realistically.

50 years ago – March 17, 1955

BANGOR – Pre-fabricated houses ready for occupancy. Building materials from blueprints to wallpaper cut and fitted for assembling. Sewing machines that do everything but model the garments they sew. Television sets that wheel into any part of the house for viewing. Heating systems of every type regulated by thermostats in every room of the house; paint; siding; all-weather doors and windows; stoves; sinks; refrigerators; and color, color everywhere! Not a dream of things to come, but a few of the fabulous things being viewed by the crowd of 700 at the opening of the Bangor Daily News Better Home Show in the Bangor Auditorium.

Everybody from Dad to little sister tried the fascinating new telephones, with Dad showing a special interest in the mobile two-way radio telephone that will provide direct communication from the family car to any point. Color has moved into the kitchen. Stove colors range from a warm glowing copper to pastel pink, yellow, coral, blue or green.

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BUCKSPORT – Miss Jacqueline Springer, registered nurse, of Eastern Maine General Hospital, addressed the student body of Bucksport High School at the assembly. She will discuss the future in the nursing field. Miss Springer is one of a series of speakers who told young people of the opportunities open to them in higher education.

Previous guests at the assemblies have included William Bryan, director of admissions at Colby College; Chesley Husson, president of Husson Business College, Bangor; and Ermo Scott, president of Farmington State Teachers College.

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CASTINE – Mr. and Mrs. Harvey Coombs and Mr. and Mrs. James Sawyer attended the Governor’s Luncheon at the Blaine Mansion in Augusta.

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CASTINE – Nine tables of bridge were in play at a public card party sponsored by the Naomi Club at the I.O.O.F. hall. Mrs. Arthur Goeckler won first ladies’ prize for bridge and Horace Leach the first gentlemen’s prize. The ladies’ prizes went to Miss Jeanette Perkins and Mrs. Bernard Sawyer and the gentlemen’s to Arthur Goeckler and Carroll Mixer. The guest cake was awarded to Orville Veague.

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BANGOR – A program of Urban Renewal has already been undertaken in Bangor without benefit of federal funds, City Planner Ken Schroeter revealed.

The neighborhood in question has been redesigned, and a new street layout proposed, in a subdivision plat of the Stillwater Park area approved last month by the planning board.

Schroeter emphasized that no federal funds are involved and no existing structures in the neighborhood are adversely affected. That particular section of Bangor was revealed as one of the worst in the city in a report of housing conditions by enumeration districts, based on 1950 U.S. Census figures.

100 years ago – March 17, 1905

BUSCKSPORT – The “hello” girls of the Bucksport telephone exchange are Miss Elizabeth Mabel Wentworth and Miss Lena Elizabeth Bowden, both efficient and courteous, and giving excellent satisfaction to the patrons of the exchange.

Miss Wentworth has been in front of the switchboard for six years, for the last three years as chief operator, succeeding her sister, now Mrs. Augusta Coombs. Miss Wentworth is a native of Lexington, Mass., but has lived in Bucksport for 15 years or more, graduating from the East Maine Conference Seminary.

Miss Bowden is a native of Verona, but has resided in Bucksport for some years. She has been assistant operator for the past two years and is one of the brightest and best young ladies of the town.

The local system was formerly known as the Bucksport and East Orland Telephone Co. but is now a part of the New England system, having been taken over by that company about two years ago.

Otto D. Partridge is the superintendent of the local system, which place he has held for six years. He is an expert telephone man, knows every inch of wire in his territory and is always alert to the best interests of both company and its patrons. Bucksport people are good patrons of the telephone and nearly all of the prominent citizens are subscribers.

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BUCKSPORT – A carload of Italian laborers came through from Boston, arriving here Thursday morning to work on the new railroad below Frankfort near Mt. Waldo.

A special train arrived here Thursday with four cars of lumber and two cars of logs, which are to be used in the construction of the new railroad.

Captain Barbour and a party of his friends from Brewer arrived here Wednesday and visited the shipyard to view the Peary vessel.

The windlass for the Peary vessel arrived Thursday. The anchors, six in number, also arrived Thursday. Two of them weigh 2,200 pounds each, the other four varying in weight from 250 to 760 pounds each.

Compiled by Ardeana Hamlin