(As reported in the Bangor Daily News)

10 years ago – Oct. 5, 1996

BANGOR – Caterina Anderson spent much of early Friday morning removing coffee mugs from the walls of the West Market Cafe in downtown Bangor. The mugs of various sizes, shapes and colors belong to several of the patrons who frequented the all-night coffee shop since it opened in February.

Amid complaints from downtown business owners and residents, the coffeehouse on Broad Street closed its doors Friday.

Most of the vandalism, noise and disorderly conduct complaints concerned the youngsters who frequented the cafe during the wee hours of the morning. The shop was open midnight to 2 p.m. each day.

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ORONO – Two hundred years of U.S. history, 140 hours of classroom time: So goes the education equation faced every fall by Maine’s social studies teachers.

As if it weren’t job enough just to teach the lengthy timeline of names and dates, history teachers also must make the past matter to students.

Some 100 middle and high school teachers took time out from their hectic pace to share ideas at a one-day University of Maine conference, “It’s About Time Again: Teaching History in Maine.”

“We’re dealing with students who are desensitized – nothing seems to affect them,” Caribou High School teacher Virginia White said. “They have a hard time separating real violence from the violence they’re exposed to via movies. When they see real suffering, they can’t relate.”

25 years ago – Oct. 5, 1981

BANGOR – Three Cadette Girl Scouts are putting finishing touches on talks and slide presentations they will give over the next few months to other Girl Scouts in Bangor and to the Abnaki Council.

The girls each attended a Wider Opportunity program for Cadette and senior level Girl Scouts and will tell of their adventures.

Gail Whitty attended “Ho, West We Go,” held in Ten Sleep, Wyo., at the 15,000-acre Girl Scout National Center West. Hiking, fishing, natural science and archaeology, along with outdoor cooking and horseback riding, were some of the activities that filled her two-week stay.

“Cadettes on Horseback” was Kimberly Hamm’s choice, also held at National Center West. Complete care and responsibility for a horse was part of her activities, along with riding on 8,000-foot-high trails and nights spent in canyons.

Susan O’Donnell chose a less physically rugged but nonetheless demanding Wider Opportunity. At the State University College of Oswego in Oswego, N.Y., she attended “Upstate, Onstage!” a two-week performing arts workshop.

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OLD TOWN – William E. Dutch, a former police officer and firefighter, has announced his candidacy for the City Council.

“As a resident of Old Town for 54 years, I would like to see the city once again become a thriving community,” Dutch said in a written statement announcing his candidacy. “As a former fireman and police officer, as well as being in business for 17 years, I am aware of the problems facing this city. If elected, I will listen and attempt to help all the people of Old Town.”

50 years ago – Oct. 5, 1956

BANGOR – The Bangor Public Library was a busy place during the month of September, according to the report of the librarian, L. Felix Ranlett.

A total of 20,234 books or other library items were issued from the central library and music branch: 7,551 adult fiction, 6,978 adult nonfiction and 5,705 juvenile books. Five thousand and two hundred books in 143 individual schoolroom boxes, each containing 35 or more books, were sent out by the extension department to public and parochial schools in Bangor.

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ORONO – More young people are now preparing to enter the teaching profession by enrolling in the school of education at the University of Maine than at any time in the university’s history, Dean Mark R. Shibles reported.

“The school of education’s total undergraduate enrollment this fall is 529 students, an all-time high,” Shibles reported. “One hundred and forty-five are freshmen.”

In 1947, when the school offered only two-year curricula serving juniors and seniors, the total enrollment was 118.

Since 1954 when the school of education became a four-year institution, increasing numbers of young people have enrolled each year. It is estimated that by 1961 the school will have an enrollment of more than 1,000 students.

Total output of teachers from the university for elementary junior and senior high school teaching positions exceeds any other institution in the state.

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BANGOR – Two Maine Central Railroad employees jumped to safety just seconds before the handcar on which they were riding was smashed by a freight train near the Bangor Waterworks.

Earl Shannon, 41, and Edward O’Brien, 24, both of Bangor, escaped injury as the westbound train reduced their small work car to a pile of twisted rubble. The men were on work detail proceeding east.

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BANGOR – It was disclosed that an additional $7,000 will be required to pave Abbott Square with hot asphalt, but there is money enough to complete all other phases of the job.

The square has been graded, crushed rock base put down and a penetrating asphalt coat applied. There is sufficient money to install curbings and other clean-up activity, but at that point the fund for the project runs out.

The entire Abbott Square parking projects, both lower and upper levels, the former enlarged and the latter improved in preparation for metering, have been paid out of the off-street parking revenue fund amounting to about $18,000.

No tax money has gone into the work and at the time the projects were proposed, City Manager Joseph R. Coupal Jr. said he planned to go as far as the money would go. He said that he was surprised that the $18,000 has gone as far as it has.

He pointed out that 17 dwellings were demolished on the lower level, which was graded and a seal coat applied, providing spaces for 400 automobiles.

100 years ago – Oct. 5, 1906

BANGOR – The big audience which attended the opening concert of the music festival was confronted with almost an embarrassment of artistic riches.

It was like an entire meal of Huyler’s chocolates – good things were heaped upon good things, almost without number until, when the long and brilliant evening finally drew to a close, the musical palate was satiated.

Imagine three superlatively fine solo artists, a magnificent chorus and by far the finest orchestra heard within recent years in Maine.

There were the usual scenes of a festival opening – the blazing lights which covered the front of the building; the costly millinery, an interesting spectacle in itself; the happy commingling in the audience of the social and musical worlds of Bangor and Eastern Maine; on the stage, the mighty choral army rising tier upon tier, the black V of the male section in sharp relief against the white gowns of the altos and sopranos on either side. It is an old story now, yet it holds the eternal freshness of novelty and youth.

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BUCKSPORT – William N. Lee and Otto Partridge were out in the back part of town Thursday gunning. They returned early in the afternoon with 11 woodcock.

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BUCKSPORT – Dr. George H. Emerson and Hervey R. Emery returned from the Moosehead region where they have been for the past 10 days on an outing trip, bringing with them a fine deer that weighed more than 150 pounds.

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ORONO – The ladies of the Universalist Society will serve one of their famous “Red Hash” suppers at the church vestry. Besides the red hash there will be cold meat, hot rolls, pumpkin pie, doughnuts and coffee, all for the small sum of 15 cents.

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ORONO – The Maine Campus, the newspaper of the University of Maine, appeared for the first time Thursday morning and makes a neat appearance. W.L. Sturtevant, who so successfully managed the Campus last year, has not returned to college and the loss of his experience along this line is greatly felt.

Compiled by Ardeana Hamlin