10 years ago – Nov. 9, 1996

(As reported in the Bangor Daily News)

HAMPDEN – Among family papers and photographs that James Carter of Hampden has accumulated over his 98 years is a letter that he wrote to his brother, Thomas, 80 years ago.

Thomas Edward Carter was killed in action in France on Nov. 4, 1918, exactly one week before the Armistice was signed to signal the end of World War I.

Thomas Carter had signed up for the war after earning a degree in agriculture. He was expected to take over the family farm in Andover, Mass. It was not to be.

“He was advancing through the Argonne Forest and he was shot through the heart,” said James Carter, a WWI veteran who will be honored at the Cole Land Transportation Museum as part of Veterans Day observances around Maine.

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BANGOR – It is a way, way gutsy thing Mark Torres has done. In fact, it is far gutsier than anything he has yet done at the Penobscot Theatre. But with the all-out production of “Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street,” Torres’ directorial daring has paid off. His production of Stephen Sondheim’s killer musical is a fascinating evening of grisly comedy and bloody revenge that is sure to beguile – and possibly bewilder – more than a few theatergoers.

25 years ago – Nov. 9, 1981

ORONO – Without the least hint of sophistry, cuteness or patronization, Germaine Greer, often slipping into the stances of a ballet dancer, mesmerized her audience at the University of Maine. Eschewing notes, the redoubtable feminist spoke for an hour with a singular regard for cohesiveness and fluency. Not the least of the fascinations of the evening was one’s awareness of a mind, swift and sharp, at work.

Coming from Tulsa, where the native of Melbourne, Australia, directs the Tulsa Center for the Study of Women’s Literature at the University of Oklahoma, she addressed herself to the “innocuous” anthology of women poets of the 18th century, a tome that served for her many excursions into sociological, political and sexist realms.

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BANGOR – A Halifax-based commuter airline with American business connections hopes to extend its flight service to Bangor within two years.

Steve Plummer, general manager of IMP Aviation, said a Halifax-Yarmouth, Nova Scotia-Bangor route is in the fledgling airline’s long-range plans.

Plummer said he discussed commuter service with Bangor International Airport officials more than a year ago. Although plans to connect Maine and Nova Scotia with commuter planes were shelved at the time, IMP now believes a market exists for the proposed service.

50 years ago – Nov. 9, 1956

BANGOR – A survey conducted at Vine Street School indicates that “C” is the average mark, Wendell Eaton, principal, told a group of 30 parents of fourth-grade pupils at the school.

Attending a coffee for the discussion of the report card and what it means and how it should be used in the home, these parents of children at the school were getting the report cards with letter markings for the first time.

Mr. Eaton served as discussion leader, and fourth-grade teachers taking part were Miss Virginia Webber, Mrs. Elizabeth Woodward, Mrs. Thelma Thurlow and elementary supervisor Mrs. Elizabeth Tibbetts.

Parents were urged to discuss the report card with the child rather than just sign it.

It was brought out that on the rank cards, the first thing parents look for is the behavior marks and secondly the rank for effort.

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BANGOR – Speaking before the Fifth Street Junior High School PTA at the school, Superintendent of Schools Laurence Peakes dropped the problem of securing and keeping good teachers squarely in the laps of the general public and the school administrator.

“What the American people want, the American people usually get,” he said. “If enough people become sufficiently acquainted with the importance of teaching, they will want to meet the need for more and better teachers.

“Every parent,” said Mr. Peakes, “wants for his child a teacher with good personality, emotional stability, understanding patience, sincere interest and respect for others, and good personal health – both physical and mental. With all of these they must have additionally good scholarship and educational poise that come only through professional preparation of a high order.

“To attract to teaching those who are adequately prepared,” added Mr. Peakes, “and to retain successful teachers for life careers, all of us school administrators and the public in general have the responsibility to see that these things are provided: A truly competitive beginning salary level, increased range from beginning to ultimate salary, fringe benefits comparable to those in other occupations, more adequate assistance with routine tasks not requiring teaching skill, sincere understanding support in facing disciplinary problems, reasonable limitation of extra-curricular activity such as lunch room duty and similar non-teaching assignments, and creative policies of administration.

100 years ago – Nov. 9, 1906

BANGOR – Many Bangor people read the football news in the Boston papers to see how Waldo Peirce, the big Bangor boy, is getting on, playing football with the Harvard squad. Last year he played enough to win his “H” but didn’t get into the big games.

This year he has been working hard, with ups and downs, vibrating between the first and second strings. His friends, however, will be pleased to learn that he has nosed out his rivals and will play right tackle in the game with the Carlisle Indians at Cambridge. This means he will probably play in the Yale game.

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BUCKSPORT – The town schools at Long Pond, Santiago, East Bucksport and Buck’s Mills have been closed on account of scarlet fever, which is now prevailing among the children in those districts. The schools at Long Pond and Santiago were ordered closed by the board of health. Superintendent A.A. Littlefield promptly closed all the schools and as soon as the epidemic is over will open them again and have the time that was lost on the fall term added to the winter term. The disease is a mild form and no serious results are anticipated.

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EAST EDDINGTON – One day last week a young man living near the village stood by the roadside, gun in hand, anxiously looking toward a meadow where a deer was expected to appear. He had been waiting a long time and was tired and hungry. So leaning his gun against a tree he hurried home which was only a short distance to get a lunch. No sooner was he out of sight than the long-looked-for deer came out in full view of a neighbor, near whose house the loaded gun stood. It didn’t take long for him to reach the gun and shoot the deer. Now the question is, to whom does the deer belong?

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BANGOR – A thousand or perhaps 1,200 music lovers attended the recital by Ossip Gabrilowtsch, the distinguished Russian pianist, in City Hall.

Gabrilowtsch is a fine figure of a man, tall, graceful and handsome. In facing an audience he expresses no pleasurable emotion in his features, as most platform celebrities do. His bearing is distinctly distant and icy cold. In response to thunders of applause, he merely bowed gravely, with almost a suggestion of cynical indifference, as if to say: “What do I care for the applause of provincials, anyway?” But while playing, his very soul seemed wrapped in the music; and his face, illumined with the light which comes from inspiration, frequently would be bent over the keys, as though to animate the instrument before him with something of his own vitality, his own ideas and thoughts.

Compiled by Ardeana Hamlin