YESTERDAY …

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(As reported in the Bangor Daily News)

10 years ago – April 27, 1996

ORONO – Bumstock is back for the 24th spring since the two-day outdoor concert began on the University of Maine campus. All the signs are there: The crowds of fans trickling up to the concert site by foot and by car, the avant-garde fashions in clothing and hair, the vendors, the dogs.

And as has been the case for the past several years, there’s as much Bumstock celebrating going on off-campus as there is on it.

“I think we’ve got more dogs than people right now,” Bumstock organizer Kris Mueller joked two hours before the concert began.

Attendance was light at 4 p.m., when the first band took the stage. But the crowd began to build slowly, and is expected to swell to as many as 3,000 as the bash picks up steam.

Bumstock XXIV features 26 musical acts over two days.

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BANGOR – Country-western dance is coming to Bangor in a big way – big enough, supporters hope, to gain entry in the Guinness Book of World Records, as 2,300 square and round dancers are expected to gather at Bass Park.

The public is invited to a Sunrise Dance at the Airport Mall. Dancers will arrive in bathrobes, pajamas and curlers for the early dance.

Those interested in square and round dance are welcome, but cloggers and contra-dancers also are included.

25 years ago – April 27, 1981

BANGOR – Kayaker Jeff Wren of Orono continued his dominance of the Kenduskeag Stream Canoe Race by knifing through very low water and many protruding rocks in two hours, 22 minutes and 13 seconds to win his class for the fifth time in six years – posting the 15th annual race’s best time for the fourth time. Wren said the shallow water made the race extremely grueling and that he developed cramps in his hands from it.

“Because the water was so shallow, there was a tremendous amount of bottom drag, so each stroke took a great amount of physical effort,” said Wren, who also had trouble with his concentration because he spent the final eight to 10 miles of the race as the lead craft.

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ORONO – The Reagan administration is “wildly off the mark in its analysis of what is going on in El Salvador,” a former U.S. ambassador to El Salvador, Robert E. White, charged at the University of Maine.

Speaking in the UM Distinguished Lecture Series, White criticized what he called Reagan’s tendency to view the world as simply an East-West struggle, a world view that “denies the possibility of an authentic revolution.”

By sending military advisers to El Salvador, White said, the United States is pushing the moderate junta toward a military solution to the instability in the Central American country. White characterized former President Carter’s approach as “creative and sophisticated” and Reagan’s as “Cold War rhetoric and big-stick diplomacy.”

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BANGOR – When I arranged to interview a Bangor medium about his peculiar gift recently, I figured the guy’s house would be some ancient, vine-shrouded, turreted affair, with maybe a high stone fence and nearby cemetery thrown in for atmosphere.

Mediums, seances, ghosts: Oh, my. As I drove toward the medium’s house, I hashed over all the tales I’d heard: Tipping tables, materialization, apparitions, levitation and just plain weird goings-on that purportedly occur during seances. After a steady diet of reporting school budget meetings, an interview with a medium sounded deliciously offbeat.

What with all my expectations, I was more than a bit surprised when I pulled up in front of the little gray rambler in a quiet residential subdivision. The house was about as unpretentious and as un-spooky as they come.

50 years ago – April 27, 1956

VEAZIE – Open house marked the 89th birthday anniversary of Mrs. Elthea Day Brooks at her home in Veazie.

She received many cards and gifts from friends an relatives.

A highlight, however, was a telephone call from Colfax, Wash., from a sister whom she had seen only once in 60 years.

Mrs. Brooks is very active, and enjoys radio and TV. She has made seven patchwork quilt tops this winter and has laid and tied five of them.

At Christmas, she knitted 24 pairs of mittens for great-grandchildren. She sews and crochets as well.

Mrs. Brooks resides with her daughter, Mrs. Austin W. Jones in Veazie.

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CASTINE – Principal Jay Calkins of Castine High School told 18 members of the PTA how to survive in an atomic bomb attack when he spoke at the high school Wednesday evening.

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BANGOR – Galen L. Cole of Bangor, president of Cole’s Express, was elected president of the Maine Truck Owners Association for the ensuing year at the ninth annual meeting of the association held at the Lafayette Hotel in Portland.

Mr. Cole is a director of the American Trucking Association and a member of the board of A.J. Cole and Sons, as well as treasurer of the Cole Realty Corp. A member of the Bangor City Council, he has been active in the Bangor-Brewer Community Chest, of which he is a director. He also is a member of the Bangor Industrial Management Club, the Bangor Junior Chamber of Commerce and several fraternal organizations.

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ORONO – The Maine Alpha Chapter Sigma Phi Epsilon announced that it will build a chapter house.

The 92-foot steel frame building will be erected at the north end of the University of Maine campus between the Orono-Stillwater highway and the Stillwater River and will be designed to accommodate 45 students. Members of the fraternity currently occupy university dormitories.

One of the newest fraternities at Maine, Sigma Phi Epsilon was organized at the university in 1948. Plans for the building have been drawn by Walter Hamilton of Augusta whose two sons are currently at UM and are members of the chapter. Hamilton has been assisted by Joseph Leavitt of Augusta. Both are graduates of the university.

Outside construction has been designed to blend with other campus buildings and will be constructed with wooden clapboards and asphalt shingle roof. Two large chimneys will serve cooking and heating plants and the two fireplaces.

Interior construction will provide kitchen and dining space at basement level, with housemother quarters and two large common rooms on the first floor. Study rooms will occupy the third floor, with sleeping quarters above.

100 years ago – April 27, 1906

BANGOR – Frederick W. Rice, son of Mr. and Mrs. James Rice of this city, will, on Jan. 1, 1907, assume the position of intern at Bellevue Hospital in New York City. The appointment is the result of a competitive examination in which about 75 candidates participated. The six holding the highest rank were selected, each for a position as intern.

In the list of six, Mr. Rice stood third, a distinct compliment to his ability as a medical student. Mr. Rice will graduate from Columbia Medical School, New York City, in May.

Mr. Rice was a member of the graduating class of Bangor High School in 1899 and was graduated in 1902 from College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, Mass. The appointment of Mr. Rice eloquently speaks for his success in his chosen vocation.

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ORONO – The Ladies Aid of the Congregational Church are very much pleased with the work they have done the past year, having made more money than the year before. After building a new kitchen, paying $200 toward parish expenses, paying for the music of the choir, paying the janitor and all bills, they find they have quite a sum of money left in the treasury.

Compiled by Ardeana Hamlin