Yesterday…

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10 years ago – Aug. 18, 1995

(As reported in the

Bangor Daily News)

Excess manganese is the culprit behind a change for the worse in the taste, smell and appearance of water coming out of faucets and hoses in Veazie and, to a lesser degree, in Orono.

“You can smell it,” said Kristian Lawson, a Dennis Paper Co. employee who has been renting a room at a local motel for about a month and a half. “It doesn’t taste right, and it doesn’t look clean.”

Aesthetic problems with water have led him to take shorter showers, and switch from drinking water to soda.

Manganese is a metallic natural element that can be found in ground water. While not a health hazard, too much manganese in the water supply can result in aesthetic problems, Orono-Veazie Water District Superintendent Dennis Cross said.

“If you filled a clear glass with water, it probably wouldn’t be noticeable,” Cross said.

But where more or deeper water is involved – such as a 5-gallon bucket, a bathtub or swimming pool – coloration is more marked.

The Orono-Veazie district had switched back to its own wells after having bought water from nearby Bangor since 1972.

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ORONO – “The old perception that 4-H is all cows and cooking has been around for a zillion years,” said Beth Parks, educator for the University of Maine Cooperative Extension in Penobscot County. “It is true 4-H had its roots in agriculture, but it has evolved tremendously to meet the needs of kids today.”

Its purpose – teaching life skills to young people – is unchanged, except that today it is a tremendous undertaking, with more than 25,000 4-H members in Maine supervised by fewer than 3,000 volunteer leaders.

4-H teaches development of positive self-concepts and effective interpersonal relationships, making sound decisions and understanding the need for physical development, teamwork, communication and record keeping.

Nearly 150 youngsters who are schooled at home are independent members who use 4-H project materials as part of their curriculum and as a way to socialize.

25 years ago – Aug. 18, 1980

CASTINE – Capt. Rodney F. “Buffy” Gray, 82, a retired sea captain and a native of this once-thriving seafaring community, drove the 58-foot sloop Omega across the finish line off the harbor entrance in a northwest breeze of up to 30 knots to win the 29th annual Maine Retired Skippers Race.

Nearly 40 cruising boats ran the triangular Olympic course of about 13 nautical miles through intermittent squalls that swept over East Penobscot Bay during the afternoon. The race was run during a small craft warning and some skippers said the wind toward the end of the race was gusting to 40 knots.

Captain Gray, the winner of the race in 1971, and a former captain of the Maine Maritime Academy’s training vessel State of Maine, was one of several men who organized the race in 1952.

50 years ago – Aug. 18, 1955

BANGOR – After 42 years the Bangor Post Office at the intersection of Harlow and Park streets is about to have a name.

No kidding.

In case you hadn’t noticed, there has never been a sign on the building since it was built out of Maine granite from Waldo by men of Oregon in 1913, under the tutelage of William G. McAdoo, Secretary of Treasury, under Democratic President Woodrow Wilson.

When Joseph S. Dinsmore became postmaster recently, he requested several jobs be done on the building – the first of which was to put a name on the building.

So one fine morning as you are passing by, just glance up on some nifty new 10-inch letters in gold leaf stretching across the doors of the main entrance and you will see “United States Post Office.”

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LUCERNE – Don’t look now, but the young fry are beginning to assert themselves on two of Eastern Maine’s most popular golf courses.

Whereas Dad, and perhaps Mom, used to bear the label of the family golfer alone, the junior set is now fast coming into its own.

A visit to the Penobscot Valley Country Club or to the Lucerne Golf Course will testify to this new swing – literally, that is.

Almost any day young golfers – both boys and girls – can be seen on the fairways and greens, some hacking away, others showing signs of being fine golfers in years to come. But all of them are out there trying.

Among the Lucerne golfers is Sandra Palmer, 14, of Lucerne, who recently won the Women’s State Golf Association Tournament for Teenage Girls.

Among youngsters who play regularly at the PVCC are: Tommy Webster, 16, Bangor; Betsy Lothrop, 16, Bangor; Peter Stebbins, 7, Bangor, youngest of the group; Nancy Stebbins, 11, Bangor; Pauline Anderson, 12, Newport; Don Lewis, 17, Bangor; Leigh Merrill, 10, Orono; Nancy Bangs, 10, Bangor; and Ricky Hersey, 15, Bangor.

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BANGOR – Television football fans are going to get a full course program this fall in their Maine living rooms.

Leon P. Gorman Jr., general manager of WABI-TV, Channel 5, announced that the National Broadcasting Co. has completed its fall program schedule of 13 games.

James Robinson, program manager for WTWO-TV, Channel 2, disclosed that the Columbia Broadcasting Service has scheduled five football telecasts. Robinson said that WTWO-TV also is making plans to televise “local football when and where possible.”

100 years ago – Aug. 18, 1905

HOLDEN – The Clewley Family Reunion in August 1905 yielded these remarks written by George Wilson, an elderly family member who lived out of state:

“There have been two things which I have asserted I would do – one is bake beans, the other is knit stockings. I have proved that I can bake beans by doing it, and have let people take the other statement on faith or doubt as they wished.

“You know that Holden was to me the practice ground where that combination of aspiration and awful indifference make havoc of so many efforts to get the balance and poise of life.

“I once saw Mr. Benjamin Farrington at work planting corn, not far from his house. The piece of ground, some of you know. He had corn in a basket; he had a hoe, and using hoe and hands would scrape a place in the stones, put in the corn and cover it with his hands. I have been asked, ‘What can they raise in such a country?’ The answer is always near. They can raise men and women. That is of far more worth than corn and oats and wheat.”

Mr. Wilson concluded his letter by writing: “With respectful and grateful memories of Holden – place of dear souls.”

After the reading of Mr. Wilson’s remarks, dinner was served to at least 300 people.

Mrs. Walter Hart read the annals of the Clewley family, early settlers of Holden. Lt. Isaac Clewley, she said, was born in 1754 of English parentage. He came to [Holden], which was then part of Orrington, on May 31, 1786, with his wife, Abia Hawes. This was soon after the close of the Revolutionary War in which he took an active part. In the war, he served as a Minute Man, as a gunner in the artillery and as a bombardier. Public records of the time describe him at age 26 as 5 feet 81/2 inches tall and of light complexion. He and Abia had nine children: Walton, Cynthia, Betsy, Isaac, Abia, Sally, Dorcas, Daniel and John.

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BRADFORD – The lightning struck a tree in Fred Stanhope’s door yard during the shower Saturday evening.

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ORLAND – Dr. Brown, who is to occupy the Dr. Croxford house in the village, has arrived in town. The doctor drove from Livermore Falls, and his household goods are on the way. His family will come here the first of the week.

Compiled by Ardeana Hamlin