(As reported in the Bangor Daily News)

10 years ago – June 16, 1995

BANGOR – A procession of students wearing white and burgundy caps and gowns made its way to the front of the room. Parents dabbed wet eyes. Video cameras rolled. A guest speaker congratulated the graduates.

The school principal handed out certificates that signaled the end of an era in the students’ lives.

Julia Lary, wearing a crisp white gown over a delicate lace dress, smiled broadly as she clutched a gold-embossed leatherette folder like the ones that encase Bangor High School diplomas. Inside was an official document bearing Lary’s name. The ceremony was for five students of the Bangor Regional Program which serves students with severe disabilities from 29 Maine communities, the majority of whom reside at the Levinson Center in Bangor.

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BANGOR – Less than a month ago, the City Council received a standing ovation for authorizing $2.5 million in bonds to restore and expand Bangor Public Library.

Library supporters probably would not have been so pleased to hear the council’s discussion at a budget workshop that focused on the possibility of no increase in the city’s contribution to the library’s operating budget for 1996.

25 years ago – June 16, 1980

BANGOR – The great elms that stand along Bangor’s State Street have shed their leaves 32 times since Phoebe Politz first assumed her job as crosswalk guard at the street intersections. As halted cars idle impatiently, Mrs. Politz guides laughing children to the other side of State Street before giving the vehicles a brisk wave to continue on their way.

The 72-year-old crosswalk guard began her career in 1949 in a time when many Bangor residents saw the center of community activity change from downtown to the shopping centers. In that time, old landmarks were replaced by modern structures, and long sleek automobiles of the ’50s and ’60s were abandoned for the more practical box-type versions of transportation. But Mrs. Politz remained steadfastly on the job.

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ORONO – Skitikuk School held its 10th anniversary graduation and awards ceremony. The guest speaker was Dr. James F. Toner, a former staff member.

After the ceremony, the high school students and staff gathered at Patagonia Lodge on Verona Island for a potluck dinner and overnight.

Skitikuk, founded in 1970, is based on the idea that students should design their own curriculum.

50 years ago – June 16, 1955

BANGOR – Bangor citizens took to the roads under sunny skies in the first full-scale evacuation of the city in the northeastern United States, but only 5,000 of the estimated 22,000 in the area went out when the whistle blew.

The rest left town ahead of time. Those who participated did so quietly, competently, impressively, and the city for an hour seemed uninhabited.

From a Civil Defense standpoint, the planning, organization and working of the evacuation was successful, City CD Director James F. White said, but he added, “the people who did carry on normal operations today haven’t helped us one bit.”

The cost of the evacuation to Bangor merchants in loss of retail and wholesale business hit $200,000, according to Norbert X. Dowd, executive secretary of the Bangor Chamber of Commerce.

The actual evacuation was carried off swiftly without a hitch, “not even a dented fender,” White claimed jubilantly.

The high school was emptied in eight minutes.

The convoys of children moved carefully and speedily into position and fell into the traffic moving north in two lanes [this was in the days before I-95] to Orono. [Editor’s note: Seven NEWS photographers and a crew of cameramen from Dow Air Force Base were assigned to cover the evacuation.]

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BANGOR – Much of Bangor lay like a sprawling, sleeping city for about two hours during the air raid evacuation test that proved to observers that the populace in the city, when the sirens wailed, felt deep-down the seriousness and significance of the alert.

This was the impression of a NEWS observer who flew over the evacuation area and beyond during the period of the alert. And to sum it up from 2,500 feet over the city, the test was a real success.

Of striking interest was the fact that while the East side of the city and the business section were actually the only areas slated to participate actively, the West side appeared from the air to be taking part in a passive way.

The East side sprawled dead except for the lines of traffic headed out State Street and Broadway.

Youngsters were playing in yards, and here and there mom was hanging out clothes but the normal hustle and bustle of the western half of a thriving city was lacking.

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BANGOR – How did a veteran of five years’ bombing in England during World War II feel about Bangor’s evacuation?

Having experienced innumerable air bombings while she was living in Manchester, England, Miss Mavis Ravenscroft of Bangor was well-qualified to speak.

“The people have no idea what it is to be scared in an air raid,” she said. “You can’t blame them for not participating. After all, it couldn’t even be called an honest test since everyone knew about it for days.”

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ORRINGTON – A Civil Air Patrol cadet, Harvey Mansfield, 17, who did a terrific job along with the entire CAP at the Penobscot County Control Center in Orrington, took a breather during the red alert and while Conalrad [a radio system one tuned to in case of national emergency] was in operation.

He was found reading “The Bedside Book of Ghost Stories.” But he was soon back at work monitoring the frequencies along with his fellow cadets, C. Edward Libby Jr., 15, and Byron R. Drew, 15.

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OLD TOWN – The first full-scale evacuation of patients from a hospital during a civil defense test alert was carried out at the Bangor Osteopathic Hospital. Ten patients, the probable number who could be evacuated in an actual red alert, were moved to Old Town High School where a complete emergency hospital was set up. The evacuation of the Bangor hospital took just eight minutes.

The entire evacuation was carried out after months of careful planning by the staff and Miss Lois Beane, registered nurse and hospital administrator.

Fourteen members of the Bangor High School Junior ROTC served as litter bearers in the evacuation, taking two minutes to move a patient from hospital bed to waiting vehicle.

After the alert sounded at 11 a.m., a convoy of 22 vehicles from the Bangor hospital completed the 14-mile trip without incident and the first patients entered the emergency hospital at 11:57 a.m. In nine minutes, all patients had been received, sorted and located in the proper wards.

100 years ago – June 16, 1905

BUCKSPORT – The closing feature of the annual Commencement of the Eastern Maine Conference Seminary was one which will be long remembered. The senior and junior classes issued very attractive invitations to the lecture, which was followed by a reception.

The weather, which had been decidedly not the best the first part of the week, made a decided change for the better and the evening was all that the most particular could desire.

Dean A.A. Wright of Cambridge, Mass., delivered the lecture. The subject was “Aspirations Through Inspirations.”

During the evening, punch was served by Miss Lena Colson of Prospect and Albert Buck of Orland. Music was furnished by an orchestra composed of the Messrs. Hall, Larsen, Crockett, Hicks and Pooler of Bangor.

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BREWER – A large number of people is expected to attend the graduation exercises of the senior class of Brewer High School. The list of graduating students is as follows:

College preparatory course – Mary Bennett, Ethel Cook, Ethel George, Linda Hopkins and Prudence Lord.

English course – Amy Cone, Edith Farrington, Clifton Hall, C. Harold Hall, Joseph Lunt, Alice Staples and Edith Washburn.

Latin scientific course – Lucy Bolton and Edna Harriman.

– Compiled by Ardeana Hamlin