10 years ago -March 31, 1995

(As reported in the Bangor Daily News)

ORONO – A sprint to the net ended the second-longest hockey game in NCAA history and sent the tired but triumphant Maine Black Bears to the NCAA hockey finals in Providence, R.I.

Dan Shermerhorn scored on a speedy give-and-go 28 seconds into the third overtime as the Black Bears outlasted Michigan 4-3. The winning goal, however, was not witnessed live by thousands of Maine hockey fans tuned in to ESPN in Greater Bangor.

After having joined the game in progress after the third period, ESPN was televising the Senior PGA Tradition Tournament from Scottsdale, Ariz., when Shermerhorn scored Maine’s fourth goal as the third overtime was beginning in Providence.

The satellite time that ESPN had budgeted for televising the hockey game ran out, so ESPN continued to broadcast the golf tournament.

As Shermerhorn’s quick backhander from in close eluded Michigan goalie Marty Turco, the 100-minute, 28-second endurance test came to a close.

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BREWER – Although the Brewer comprehensive plan has not yet been made final, one of the ideas to come out of the planning effort, a wetlands bank, will be considered by councilors.

The council will be asked to appropriate $30,000 to pay for a consultant to assist the city staff in establishing a Wetlands Mitigation Bank.

It is a relatively new concept, Brewer Economic Development Director Les Stevens said, and if adopted, it will give Brewer another economic development tool that will put the city on the cutting edge in its ability to attract developers.

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HAMPDEN – James Carter of Hampden keeps up an exhilarating pace. Not many 87-year-olds drive their own cars and are as busy as he is.

Monday is laundry day, and an evening meeting with the local historical society. Tuesday was quiet this week.

Wednesday, he visited his dentist and then attended a potluck supper at his church. And then there is his work for the Hampden Food Cupboard.

Thursday is Kiwanis day. In the afternoon, Carter is at the Kiwanis Civic Center, “with a couple of Key Club kids,” to set up tables for the dinner meeting. Carter served as treasurer for eight years and is still active on several committees.

Friday, he goes shopping with his step-daughter. Saturday evening, he’ll be at the door collecting money for a Kiwanis bean supper.

Sunday is church day. But in the afternoon he writes letters to his family.

In June, Carter will return to his native Massachusetts to attend his 79th reunion at Phillips Andover Academy, Class of ’16. Studies for an electrical engineering degree at Massachusetts Institute of Technology were interrupted by stateside military service in World War I, but he is MIT ’22, and worked 42 years as a consulting engineer.

25 years ago -March 31, 1980

CORINTH – “I don’t drink and I don’t smoke – never have,” said Earl Noyes. For one who is nudging 88, Noyes, the oldest member of the Penobscot County Chapter of the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barbershop Quartet Singing in America, is remarkably spry and intellectually agile.

A member of the singing organization for four years, Noyes drives into Bangor from East Corinth, where he lives in an eight-room house, almost every week for rehearsals at Grace Methodist Church. A couple of years ago, he single-handedly shingled his house and periodically, he applies a coat of paint and gives it needed repairs. “I manage to keep going about 16 hours a day,” he said. “I’m lucky to have vitality.”

Not one to let time slip away unprofitably, Noyes volunteers two or three days at St. Joseph Hospital in Bangor, manning the reception desk. “The secret to a long life and good health,” he said, “is to keep active.”

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BREWER – One morning in March, writes Doris Lyford of Brewer, father came in to breakfast and announced, “Sap’s running,” and we were off and running. There had not been such a ruckus since one of the farm cats we thought was a tom came out of the hay mow with six kittens in tow. Everybody was talking at once. Did we have spiles or spouts left from last year, and how about containers to hold the sap?

Sapping time had caught us unawares. There was still a couple of feet of snow on the ground.

Uncle Roger, who lived with us and assisted father on the farm, said he would start right away whittling the spiles if he could find some cedar wood that was suitable. In those long-ago days, we had never heard of the metal spiles used today. Mother had been saving lard pails throughout the winter, so that took care of the containers.

To us’uns, sapping time was the first harbinger of spring to be followed by the first hepatica, and the shedding of long underwear and putting on our gingham dresses, in that order.

The big sugar maples up on the ridge adjacent to the pasture where W.A. Bean fatted his steers for winter beef were running sap.

50 years ago -March 31, 1955

BANGOR – Feeling that the time has come when Bangor should ask for enabling legislation for slum clearance and public housing, members of the Bangor Family Service Society board and the Bangor Junior League have undertaken an inspection of substandard housing in the city.

Their findings were:

A mother and six small children live in a third-floor Bangor flat where the heating and cooking are done by wood stoves. The only fire escape is a vertical ladder attached to the outside of the building and impossible for a child to descend. The flush toilet is not working.

Eleven members of two families live in one room in another local rent – their only toilet facilities being a dirt privy about 50 feet from their open water supply.

Ten people, including small children, in another rented apartment use a flush toilet located in a former clothes closet with no door and no ventilation. It isn’t functioning either.

Stairs have treads so worn the cellar can be seen, and handrails have no dowels to keep youngsters from falling through. Plaster is falling from walls and ceilings, and broken windows are patched with cardboard.

Houses inspected were in the Stillwater Avenue area, the lower Hancock-York streets area and the Parker Street area, and included five rental units and one house a family was buying. As a result of the report, the inspection will continue indefinitely.

100 years ago -March 31, 1905

BUCKSPORT – Great enthusiasm is being manifested for the Peary lecture in Emery Hall. The advance sale of seats has been very large, with more than 300 tickets sold. Mr. Peary will be assisted by A.H. Dinsmore, who will have charge of the stereopticon views with which Mr. Peary will illustrate his lecture. If any money remains after the expenses of the lecture have been paid, it will be divided among three churches.

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BANGOR – The river is clear of ice up to Stern’s mill. Above that point it is soft and black and full of holes. It would not be surprising if it went out between now and Sunday. The slips at the ferry way on both the Bangor and Brewer sides were taken up yesterday afternoon and all crossing is now by the bridge. There are 15-22 inches of blue ice under the black ice above the toll bridge, a rather unusual condition considering how things are just below. Kenduskeag Stream is clear to a point near the railroad bridge.

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ORONO – It is definitely stated that at the close of next week, the Bangor, Orono and Old Town Electric Railroad Co. will have ceased to be. There will still be an electric road running through town, but it will no longer bear the old familiar name. At a meeting the latter part of next week the Bangor, Orono, and Old Town Railroad Co. will be consolidated with the Old Town Electric Light Co., the Old Town Water Co., the Bangor Street Railroad Co., the Bangor Public Works Co., and the Bangor, Hampden and Winterport Railroad Co., under the general name of the Bangor Electric Co. This company is financed by New York parties. Practically no stock of the B., O. and O. electric railroad is now held by Orono or Old Town parties.

Compiled by Ardeana Hamlin