Yesterday …

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(As reported in the Bangor Daily News)

10 years ago – Dec. 1, 1995

BREWER – You’ve probably seen them at Brewer parades or at other crowded events – young men and women, dressed in dark blue uniform pants with the French blue stripe down the side and white shirts with French blue lapels, directing traffic or assisting with crowd control.

The are the members of the Brewer Police Explorers Post 007.

Post leader Cpl. Jay Munson said at a recent meeting of the group that a number of area police officers began their careers in law enforcement through the Explorers.

“I teach them what I do as a police officer. We teach them from the Maine Criminal Justice Academy lesson plans and from the Police Reserve Officers School,” said Munson.

Munson is more than qualified to do the instruction. In addition to being a police officer, he also is a substitute teacher at Brewer High School.

Recently, Explorer Scouts T.J. Warner, 18, of Hermon; Aaron Rogers, 20, of Brewer; Nick Huff, 16, of Orrington; Shawn Jackson, 19, of Corinth; Jake Carstensen, 17, of Brewer; Mike Spencer, 17, of Orrington; and Jon Saucier, 15, of Brewer sat around a rectangular table “counting brass.”

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BANGOR – If you went looking for Rush Limbaugh on radio station WSNV 103.9 FM in Bangor and heard silence, it wasn’t because the portly political pundit had nothing to say. He had plenty to say, by no local transmitter through which to say it.

A small ice storm delayed workers from completing work on the talk radio station’s transmitter on a new 600-foot radio tower on Passadumkeag Mountain owned by WHCF-FM 88.

The new tower replaced one that collapsed in January under hefty ice accumulations.

WSNV station operations manager Hal Wheeler said a work crew was two hours from completing work on the station’s transmitter when the ice storm hit, halting work.

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25 years ago – Dec. 1, 1980

BUCKSPORT – While congratulating a group of local businessmen on their efforts to improve the Bucksport waterfront, U.S. Sen. George Mitchell warned the group not to expect much help from the incoming administration.

Mitchell made his comments during the first annual meeting of the Bucksport Improvement Group at Jed Prouty’s Restaurant.

Mitchell said he receives some 1,000 letters each week from his Maine constituents, and their comments can be broken down into three categories.

“They have sent me three messages: To increase defense spending; to increase federal spending in areas in which they derive benefits; and to bring the budget into balance,” Mitchell said.

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BUCKSPORT – U.S. Sen. George Mitchell was the guest speaker at official groundbreaking ceremonies for the new $345,000 Bucksport Regional Health Center, being built on an acre of land next to Bucksport High School.

Mitchell said the need for providing adequate health care runs up against the need for controlling inflation.

“The first step in that direction [controlling inflation] is balancing the federal budget,” Mitchell said. “The problem is that our resources are limited, but the needs are unlimited.”

50 years ago – Dec. 1, 1955

VEAZIE – A $5 million expansion program by the Bangor Hydro Electric Co. is under way to improve service in Washington County, Edward M. Graham, president of the utility, announced.

Work on the 60-mile, 111,000-volt line between the company’s power plant in Veazie and Jonesboro, the center of the Washington County electrical circuit, is now in progress.

A steam plant to produce 16,500 kilowatt hours of power will be built north of Bangor or at the power company’s main plant in Veazie. The unit, which will cost $3.5 million, is still in the planning stage, especially as to its location, but it is definite that it will be built, Graham stated.

The new construction will double the available power in the area and it is the hope of the officers of the Hydro that the new construction will attract industries.

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ORONO – More than 80 women from Orono and vicinity saw Mrs. Roger Clapp make all types of Christmas decorations – from a Christmas tree from a tin can to a decorative bell from the tin can cover – when she spoke on “Christmas Suggestions” in the Methodist Church vestry.

Mrs. Clapp showed various types of decorations for the front and back doors of any style of house.

The speaker told the ladies that pink and gold are being featured throughout the country as the colors for the 1955 Christmas. She displayed various door decorations with gilded cones and gold bows; also arrangements using pink Christmas decorations.

The tea table centerpiece, arranged by Mrs. Clapp, featuring a pink and silver motif, was made of pink snapdragons, Queen Anne’s lace sprayed with pink paint, small pink Christmas balls and silver sprays. Pink tapers in sterling silver holders complemented the decorations.

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BANGOR – The old phrase “women drivers” still has a hallowed place in the vocabulary of the man behind the wheel. Some ladies expect to be allowed a left turn onto Main Street from Broad Street instead of wasting all that time going around four blocks.

And other women hope the man in the car behind them will be patient while they maneuver into a tight parking space in the Central Street curve. But most women drivers long ago resigned themselves to the fact that chivalry is dead and it’s an age of competition even on the road.

A woman will stare levelly at the man who beats her to a seat on the bus, or shoves her aside where there’s a ticket-office line. But she’s behaving dangerously and foolishly if she expects any special treatment when she’s driving the family car.

The Maine working woman long ago gave up any ideas she may have cherished about the gallantry of the male, but that’s the price she had to pay for the so-called “equality of the sexes” in the business world.

100 years ago – Dec. 1, 1905

BANGOR – It was a very quiet Thanksgiving – quiet and cold. In the morning a few hundred people ventured forth rather timidly and attended the union service in the Essex Street Baptist Church, which was the nearest approach offered to an official observance of the day.

The charitable institutions were liberally remembered, perhaps more than in former years, but it was all very monotonous and conventional.

“Anything doing?” Captain Fahey of the first night squad was asked by a reporter as he stood in the windswept emptiness of West Market Square shortly before midnight.

“Never a ripple,” replied the captain. “Nobody gets arrested on a day like this. The cussedness seems actually to be frozen out of ’em.”

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BUCKSPORT – The residents of Bucksport who have been so fortunate as to hear the phonograph of W.T. Fifield and H.P. Parker, have become convinced of the wonders of the age, and the ability of Bucksport’s sons.

The phonograph is one of the finest and largest owned in the town and an Edison Triumph, but what interests the residents particularly is the horn, which is the work of W.V. Fifield, a young man of much ability who is employed at the store of Horace Buck.

This horn was designed by Mr. Fifield, and is made of galvanized iron in the shape of a large lily. It is 7 feet in length and 40 inches wide at the mouth, composed of 16 pieces soldered together. The difficulty in executing the design can be better understood when it is realized that the strips do not overlap, but just meet.

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OLD TOWN – Quietness pervaded this city on Thanksgiving Day and residents observed the holiday in various ways. Many attended the dances and theater performances in Bangor, while others stayed at home, either enjoying a rest or working around the house, the latter seeming to be particularly appropriate for holidays. Pupils of the public and parochial schools enjoyed a holiday and some of the business establishments closed up part of the day, the drug stores being closed from noon to 5:30 o’clock.

Compiled by Ardeana Hamlin