(As reported in the Bangor Daily News)

10 years ago – May 10, 1997

ORONO – Though everybody with a stake in the project took a turn at the microphone, field hockey coach Terry Kix best summed up the planned construction of a $5 million artificial turf stadium at the University of Maine.

Standing behind the microphone with the three principal benefactors flanking her at the head table, Kix took a deep breath and swept the packed room with her eyes.

“Wow,” she said.

Beside her, Harold Alfond, Phillip Morse and Sue Morse smiled, and boosters around the room chuckled.

The 10,000-seat facility, which will include a multipurpose field for football and field hockey as well as a new stadium with lights around the existing Alumni Field site, is set for a fall 1999 completion. Construction of the field will begin after this fall’s home football slate is finished.

The facility was pitched as a great recruiting tool for field hockey and football, and a potential site for regional and state high school contests in both sports.

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BANGOR – Passers-by tend to pause in front of the W.T. Grant building on Central Street these days, the better to study the bright yellow kayaks in the front windows.

It has been a matter of debate whether the third Cadillac Mountain Sports store will open this year, next – or not at all.

There’s good news, Community and Economic Development Director Rodney McKay said. The store will open ahead of schedule – this July, in fact.

The new store will be operated by Brad and Lynda Ryder of Bangor under a license agreement with store owners Matthew and Cheryl Curtis, who will continue to run the Bar Harbor and Ellsworth stores.

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BANGOR – First-time caller here.

From Bangor.

Female.

Between the ages of 25 and 54.

And my question is: What’s it like to talk to Mainers?

“They are very direct and very open,” said Bob Lacey over the phone. “But people in Maine want the same thing that people in New York or North Carolina want – to be able to find some happiness and to get a laugh on the way to work in the morning.”

And Bob should know. He and Sheri Lynch make up the team of Bob and Sheri on the WEZQ-FM 92.9 Soft Hits morning talk show that bears their name. Since 1992, Bob and Sheri have been sending their snappy conversations and spirited interviews over the airwaves from their home station in Charlotte, N.C., where their show ranks No. 1 among female audiences and No. 2 overall in the market.

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BREWER – Parents need to let their children be in the driver’s seat more often – literally. Officials at the annual convention of Maine Driver Education said teens need more driving experience before and after obtaining their licenses to help them become safe and responsible behind the wheel.

Participants at the convention, held at Jeff’s Catering in Brewer, also said parents need to work with driver education instructors to ensure better teenage drivers. Adults should make sure their children practice in the family car what they have learned in driver education class.

25 years ago – May 10, 1982

ORONO – In the spring, many a Mainer’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of fiddleheads.

“When Mother’s Day comes, I think of fiddleheads,” said Ruth Reed of Orono. “Growing up in Easton, I’d go fiddleheading with my mother every year. We’d take pillowcases and go to a secret place – you always keep your fiddleheading spot secret – and get our feet wet picking in a boggy or springy place,” she remembered.

John Maines of Brewer, a retired forester, has been fiddleheading for many years.

“The ostrich fern, or fiddlehead, grows in alluvial soil, or silt deposited by the river,” Maines said. “The best fiddleheading around is at Indian Island.”

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MILFORD – Nancy and Clifford Runnells of Milford became the proud parents of a baby girl, their third child, Friday morning – about an hour or so sooner than they expected to.

Mrs. Runnells went into labor at about 5:30 a.m. Friday. An ambulance from the Old Town Fire Department was summoned to deliver the expectant mother to the James E. Taylor Osteopathic Hospital in Bangor for the birth of the child.

Mrs. Runnells barely got into the ambulance, however, before it became apparent that her child would be born long before the vehicle reached Interstate 95, let alone the hospital delivery room.

Mrs. Runnells, assisted by ambulance attendants Andrew Eaton and David Gibbs, gave birth to a healthy girl at 5:51 a.m. Amy Robyn Runnells weighed 7 pounds at birth.

Amy was born within sight of the Runnells’ house, which has been in the family for four generations.

50 years ago – May 10, 1957

ORONO – The F.T. Burpee Hardware Co.’s new self-service store at 5 Mill St., described as one of the most modern in Northern New England, opened Thursday.

Frederick T. Burpee of Bennoch Road, Orono, proprietor of the business established six years ago, said that the new location beside the company’s previous site at 2 Mill St. provides 50 percent more sales floor space in addition to a full basement for storage purposes.

Burpee said that the store is the first self-service establishment in the area. It will carry full lines of hardware and sporting goods and also will have a gift department.

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BANGOR – Field staffers of the NEWS underwent a variety of rugged experiences Wednesday and Thursday in order to contribute to the paper’s coverage of the serious forest fire situation.

Calais Bureau Chief Jay Hinson joined firemen and volunteers Wednesday in battling a blaze which for a time threatened his own residence on the outskirts of that city. But he still found time to file coverage of that and other Downeast blazes and followed with an on-the-spot account of Thursday’s fire threat in Lubec.

Len Harlow, bureau chief at Rockland, nearly became marooned for lack of transportation on the island of North Haven, where he went Wednesday night for a first-hand look at the blaze which threatened the tiny town of Pulpit Harbor and neighboring estates.

And Skowhegan bureau chief Don Brough capped a good job by the staffers Thursday when he trekked to remote Jackman and then to the equally isolated Kingsbury-Wellington area to cover with stories and pictures serious forest fires in those areas. Then he drove to Bangor with his material, and finally back to Skowhegan – a long day’s work.

100 years ago – May 10, 1907

BANGOR – With great ease and no excitement whatever the new city council transacted at its first regular meeting a considerable amount of business.

The most important thing done at the meeting was the passage of an order authorizing an expenditure for $25,000 for a six-room brick school on Larkin Street, Ward 3. This will fill a long-felt want.

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BRADFORD CENTER – Mr. Bowden of Orrington passed through this place Friday with eight large oxen en route for Medford where they are to be worked in the construction of the railroad.

Compiled by Ardeana Hamlin

WEEKLY, PAGE 5

PICTURE FROM THE PAST

The Bangor High School cheerleaders’ dinner was held at the Oronoka Restaurant in April 1957. Attending were (seated, from left) Cleo Noddin, Rosemary Hopkins, varsity captain Betty Beverly, Brenda McNamara, Kay Dean, Joanna Cole and Sandra Hammond; (second row) Nancy Witherly, Joy Fisher, Sandra VanAken, JV captain Bonny Lynch, Sandra Zoidis and Sandra Lowe; (third row) Joyce Brown, Gailellen Fletcher and Deborah Munce. (Bangor Daily News File Photo by Spike Webb) (Picture from the Past sponsored by Movie America)